If you consider doing business in one of 149 foreign countries and are looking for information on its transport and logistics environment, you may want to consult the 'Logistics Performance Index' developed by the World Bank in cooperation with the Turku School of Economics.
Maria Pittordis, Head of the Marine Personal Injury team at solicitorsHill Dickinson (London), reports that the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 will bring important changes to the law in the United Kingdom.
Mike Compton also reported on an investigation into a container falling away from a front loading lift truck. This was caused by badly damaged corner castings on the container which did not arise from that particular lift but arose from some earlier incident.
Supply Chain Security has been a hot topic for some years now with the vulnerability of international trade to threats such as economic and political terrorism, smuggling and organised crime becoming an increasing focus for companies.
Mike Compton of ICHCA International reports on the IMO sub-committee meeting, which took place 17-21 September 2007. Most of the IMDG Code has been mandatory since 1 January 2004. However, one small part is not and that is concerned with shoreside training of those persons who are involved in any way with the generation of packaged dangerous goods to the port and the ship. Similar training for ships' crews is mandatory but the reasoning for the difference is that IMO's remit does not extend ashore beyond the immediate ship/shore interface.
Two important recent judgments concerned the question whether a driver who falls asleep at the wheel is liable for wilful misconduct under Article 29 CMR. Fortunately, in both cases the driver survived the accident.
In TT Talk Edition 99 we mentioned that UCP 600, the new 'ICC Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits' replaced its predecessor UCP 500 per 1 July 2007. UCP does not have automatic force of law, but is almost universally recognized and incorporated by the parties into their documentary credit (or 'letter of credit') contract.
