The forty-sixth session of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)* was held in New York from 17 to 21 March 2025.
At its fifty-fifth session in 2022, the Commission instructed Working Group VI to consider the topic of negotiable multimodal transport documents.
1. The Working Group discussed the topic from its forty-first session to its forty-fourth session on the basis of draft provisions on negotiable transport documents prepared by the secretariat. Given that the instrument on negotiable transport documents could be applied to both mixed and single-mode transport, the name of the Working Group was changed to “negotiable transport documents” to avoid confusion.
2. At its fifty-sixth session in 2023, the Commission took note of the decision of the Working Group to postpone consideration of the draft provisions on electronic aspects and to revert to them after completion of the work on the main provisions on the negotiable nature of documents. The Commission expressed its satisfaction with the progress of the work in Working Group VI and the support provided by the secretariat.
3. At its fifty-fourth session in 2024, the Commission noted that the Working Group had received several presentations on the procedure for the issuance and use of non-negotiable transport documents in accordance with the existing conventions on the carriage of goods, with a view to identifying possible conflicts between the draft instrument and existing conventions in the field of transport law. In doing so, the need to properly address any potential conflicts with existing conventions in the field of transport law was stressed. The Commission was also informed that the Working Group had completed its consideration of draft chapter 3 on negotiable electronic cargo records and had requested the secretariat to align the draft provisions with the Model Law on Electronically Transmitted Records (MTL). The Working Group also decided to follow the same approach in considering the electronic aspects as had been taken in the joint UNCITRAL/UNIDROIT draft model law on warehouse receipts. The Commission stressed the need to avoid duplication of work and to ensure consistency with existing UNCITRAL texts on electronic commerce, in particular the MTL.
4. At its forty-sixth session, the Working Group continued its consideration, article by article, of the revised draft provisions in the form of a convention on negotiable cargo documents.
*The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly, established in 1966 to promote the development of international trade law.
The UNCITRAL Commission was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1966 and has been in operation since 1 January 1968. In establishing the Commission, the General Assembly recognized that differences arising from the application of the laws of different States in matters of international trade were one of the obstacles to trade flows. In this regard, the Commission was seen as an instrument through which the United Nations could play a more active role in reducing or eliminating obstacles to international trade.
The General Assembly gave the Commission a general mandate, instructing it to promote the progressive harmonization and unification of laws in the field of international trade. The Commission became the principal body of the United Nations system on international trade law.
The Commission has prepared and adopted the following documents:
• Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale of Goods (adopted by the UN in 1974)
• UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules — adopted by the UN in 1976
• Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea — adopted by the UN Conference in Hamburg in March 1978
• UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods — adopted by the UN in April 1980 in Vienna
• Convention on International Bills of Exchange and International Promissory Notes — adopted by the UN on December 9, 1988
• Convention on the International Multimodal Transport of Goods
• UN Convention on Independent Guarantees and Standby Letters of Credit (New York, 1995)
• UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Messages in International Treaties (New York, 2005)
• Model Law UNCITRAL on International Commercial Arbitration (1985)
• UNCITRAL Model Law on International Credit Transfers (1992)
• UNCITRAL Model Law on Procurement of Goods (Works) and Services and Guide to its Adoption (1994)
• UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (1997)
• UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce (1996)
• UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures (2001)
• UNCITRAL Legal Guide to the Drafting of International Contracts for the Construction of Industrial Facilities (1987) etc.