The law applicable to the international multimodal contracts of carriage of goods which are formed by road and sea

This research aims to determine which law should be applied by Turkish courts to the international multimodal contracts of carriage of goods which are formed by road and sea. There is no international convention in force which regulates international multimodal contracts of carriage of goods. For this reason, there is an uncertainty regarding the applicable law. Therefore, firstly, this research determines the definition of the multimodal contract of carriage. In order to provide this definition, various past attempts to establish a convention regarding this matter and definition of the multimodal contract of carriage provided in them are referred. In addition, there are references to definitions provided in various rules which do not have the force of law. There is also an examination on how container transport facilitated the emergence of the multimodal transport. Furthermore, discussions in the doctrine on why there is no international convention in force which regulates international multimodal contracts of carriage of goods are provided. In order to determine how Turkish law regulates contracts of carriage of goods and multimodal contracts of carriage of goods, relevant articles of Turkish Commercial Code (No.6102) are examined. Secondly, the scope of application of the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law relating to Bills of Lading, and Protocol of Signature (1924) (Hague Rules) and the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (1956) (CMR Convention) are provided as Türkiye is party to these conventions. In addition, whether the Hague Rules are applicable to the sea leg of the multimodal transport and whether the CMR Convention is applicable to the road leg of the multimodal transport are discussed by providing various cases and different views in the doctrine considering different jurisdictions. Thirdly, Article 29 of Turkish Private International Law and Procedural Law Code (No. 5718) is examined as this article regulates the applicable law to the contracts of carriage of goods. As Article 29 of Turkish Private International Law and Procedural Law Code causes various controversies in the doctrine, a new article is recommended in order to eliminate issues which are caused by this article. Keywords: International multimodal contracts of carriage of goods which are formed by road and sea, applicable law, container, Hague Rules, CMR, Article 29 of Turkish Private International Law and Procedural Law Code.