Over recent decades, the world has witnessed China’s speedy economic development, which has greatly facilitated the devel- opment of its multimodal transport (UNCTAD, 2008). Multimodal transport is the carriage of goods by at least two different modes of transport on the basis of a multimodal transport contract (UN Doc, 1980). Even though nowadays cargoes are transported in much safer ways, they are still frequently damaged or lost during transport (Ulfbeck, 2009). Therefore, legal problems surrounding a carrier’s liability under multimodal transport are continuously emerging. This is because a single liability system with regard to multimodal transport is neither nation-wide nor worldwide. Rather, liability under multimodal transport varies according to the combination of different modes of transport under a multi- modal transport contract, as well as the determination of the stage during which loss of or damage to the cargo, or delay in delivery, occurred.
Against this background, this paper mainly aims to explore a carrier’s liability under multimodal transport contracts subject to Chinese law. Following this introduction, we begin by analyzing in Section 2 cargo claims under multimodal transportation contracts subject to Chinese law. Section 3 provides interesting discussions on the liability of carriers under the Rotterdam Rules and the