Carriage of goods by rail

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Produced in partnership with Quentin Tannock of 4 Pump Court , James Watthey of 4 Pump Court , Elliott Cook of 4 Pump Court and Aphiwan Natasha King of 4 Pump Court
Practice notes

Carriage of goods by rail

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

Produced in partnership with Quentin Tannock of 4 Pump Court , James Watthey of 4 Pump Court , Elliott Cook of 4 Pump Court and Aphiwan Natasha King of 4 Pump Court

Practice notes
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This Practice Note provides a summary of the law relating to the carriage of goods by rail as provided for in the Uniform Rules Concerning the Contract of International Carriage of Goods by Rail (CIM). It explains the scope of application of CIM, the contract of carriage under CIM, how liability is apportioned under CIM, time bars and jurisdiction. See: Uniform rules concerning the contract for international carriage of goods by rail (CIM): Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents [43].

International carriage by rail is governed by the Uniform Rules Concerning the Contract of International Carriage of Goods by Rail (CIM) (the Rules). The Rules are enacted under the auspices of the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF), which is given the force of law in the United Kingdom by the Railways (Convention on International Carriage by Rail) Regulations 2005, SI 2005/2092.

Scope of application

Under article 1, the Rules apply:

Quentin Tannock
Quentin Tannock

4 Pump Court

Quentin Tannock has a commercial practice with a strong focus on advocacy. Quentin acts and advises on a broad spectrum of disputes across a range of industry sectors, for example, including insurance, financial services and professional negligence. While his practice has a focus on high value disputes, Quentin's clients range in size from the Fortune 100 through to SMEs. Quentin's background is in law and business, including commercial arbitration, venture capital investments and the provision of IP related strategy and policy advice to multinational corporations and international organisations. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge and gave a series of lectures on IP and business to science master’s students at the University of Cambridge.

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James Watthey
James Watthey chambers

Barrister, 4 Pump Court

James is an experienced commercial barrister handling heavyweight international arbitration and litigation. James focuses on charterparty disputes, cargo claims, sale and purchase, shipbuilding disputes, international trade and marine insurance. In addition to LMAA, LCIA, SIAC, ICC and other institutional and ad hoc arbitrations all around the world, he also frequently handles disputes in the Commercial Court and the Admiralty Court, as well as other divisions of the High Court. He has particular experience of international actions involving jurisdictional disputes. James also has experience in mediation and as an Arbitrator and expert in English law in foreign proceedings. His arbitration practice includes both substantive proceedings and challenges under the Arbitration Act 1996, on grounds such as want of jurisdiction, apparent bias, serious irregularity and errors of law. More recently, he has handled a lot more commodities and energy related shipping disputes. He also works on Admiralty matters and is widely regarded as pre-eminent in the superyacht market. Increasingly, he is being sought after as an arbitrator.

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Elliott Cook
Elliott Cook

Barrister, 4 Pump Court

Elliott’s practice includes complex commercial disputes, financial services, civil fraud, insurance and re-insurance, professional negligence, construction, and shipping.

Before coming to the Bar, Elliott was a judicial assistant at the Supreme Court of Western Australia. He later worked at a leading international commercial law firm in Perth, Australia as a solicitor in the litigation team with a particular focus on mining and energy, insolvency, and corporate law. In the year prior to joining Chambers, Elliott was employed as a qualified foreign solicitor at a large US law firm in London working on a range of disputes across a wide variety of industry sectors.

In addition to being called to the Bar in England & Wales, Elliott is admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Australia.

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Aphiwan Natasha King
Aphiwan Natasha King

Barrister, 4 Pump Court

Natasha King is a barrister at 4 Pump Court. She is developing a broad practice across all of Chambers’ areas of expertise, including commercial litigation and international arbitration.

Natasha has a first class degree in commerce from the University of Melbourne, a first class degree in law from the University of Cambridge, and a specialist LL.M. in international business and economic law from Georgetown University. She has won multiple academic awards and prizes, including the top scholarship awarded by Lincoln’s Inn for the bar course.

Before coming to the Bar, Natasha served as a dispute settlement lawyer in the Legal Affairs Division of the World Trade Organization for three years, advising panelists on State-to-State disputes. She has written several publications on issues of international trade law, international investment law, and international commercial arbitration. She also writes for and assists on the editorial team of Opinio Juris, a leading public international law blog.

Natasha is regularly instructed in complex shipping disputes, frequently with an international element. Prior to coming to the Bar, Natasha worked on a major international trade dispute involving the imposition of economic embargos at ports in the Middle East. She has previous experience in LMAA arbitrations and shipping cases involving economic sanctions and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:
Key definition:
Carriage of goods definition
What does Carriage of goods mean?

The transportation of goods by sea, air, land (rail and road), or a combination of these.

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