Legal Regime of the Settlement of Disputes Arising from a Contract of Multimodal Carriage of Goods within CEMAC Land lock Countries

Abstract

CEMAC landlocked countries (specifically Chad and Central African Republic) depend solely on Cameroon who serves as a transit state for the transportation of goods to and from these landlocked countries. Thus, the entering into bilateral conventions helped to facilitate and create transit corridors for the transportation of goods amongst these countries. Meanwhile Cameroon which serves as a transit state to these landlocked countries has four modes of transport (road, rail, water and air), while Chad and Central African Republic have just two or three principal mode of transportation namely road, rail and air. However, these modes of transportation pose unique challenges, particularly in countries with limited infrastructure. Through doctrinal analysis of both primary and secondary sources of data, this article seeks to examine the legal framework in resolving disputes arising from contracts of multimodal carriage of goods available to landlocked countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). Our findings revealed that, the legal framework in resolving disputes arising from contracts of multimodal carriage of goods available to landlocked countries are not effectively implemented. As a result, some salient recommendations have been made to bridge the gap between theory and practice amongst these countries in general and Cameroon in particular.