THE ROTTERDAM RULES: THE UN CONVENTION ON CONTRACTS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CARRIAGE OF GOODS WHOLLY OR PARTLY BY SEA/THE ROTTERDAM RULES 2008: COMMENTARY TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON CONTRACTS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CARRIAGE OF GOODS WHOLLY OR PARTLY BY SEA/THE CARRIAGE OF GOODS BY SEA UNDER THE ROTTERDAM RULES

THE ROTTERDAM RULES: THE UN CONVENTION ON CONTRACTS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CARRIAGE OF GOODS WHOLLY OR PARTLY BY SEA. By Michael F. Sturley, Tomotaka Fujita, and Gertjan van der Ziel. London: Thomson Reuters (Legal) Limited [Sweet and Maxwell], 2010. Pp. liv/444. GBP 195.00. ISBN: 9781847037343.

THE ROTTERDAM RULES 2008: COMMENTARY TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON CONTRACTS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CARRIAGE OF GOODS WHOLLY OR PARTLY BY SEA. Edited by Alexander von Ziegler, Johan Schelin, and Stefano Zunarelli. AIphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands: Kluwer Law International, 2010. Pp. xxvi/424. EUR150.00/USD 198.00. ISBN: 9789041131485.

THE CARRIAGE OF GOODS BY SEA UNDER THE ROTTERDAM RULES. Edited by D. Rhidian Thomas. London: Informa Law, 2010. Pp. xxxvii/421. GBP 265.00/USD 477.00/EUR331.00. ISBN 9781843118930.

The year 2008 saw the culmination of over a decade of formal and informal work aimed at updating and revising the legal regimes governing the carriage of goods by sea, in the new "United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly By Sea" ? an unwieldy technical moniker that the United Nations General Assembly wisely recommended be known as the more graceful and memorable "Rotterdam Rules." The Rotterdam Rules mark a notable attempt by the international transportation community to modernize and bring order to the overlapping and inconsistent regimes now governing the liability of the transportation of goods by sea ? the 1924 Hague Rules (including the U.S. Carriage of Goods by Sea Act ("COGSA"), the 1968 Hague- Visby Rules, the 1978 Hamburg Rules, not to mention the adaptations adopted by various members of the world's international community.

The history of this attempt extends back to 1 996, when the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ("UNICTRAL") invited the Comit? Maritime International ("CMI") to prepare the first draft of an Instrument that would replace the existing regimes. CMI began that effort, in the process initiating the useful consultation with experts of many nations and many industry groups that was to mark the development of the Rotterdam Rules over the next twelve years. By December 2001, CMI had delivered its draft to UNCITRAL, and in early 2002 UNICTRAL's Working Group III (Transport Law) in turn had begun the process of twice-yearly, two-week-long meetings that culminated in the Rotterdam Rules.