Limitation of liability right in road freight carriage in Croatia: an extinct institute

Abstract

Although it is a European Union member state and a party to the CMR Convention, Croatia has not ratified the 1978 CMR-SDR Protocol. Under Croatian law, the carrier liability limit concerning damage to cargo in international transport is not 8.33 special drawing rights (SDR) but, rather, 25 Gérminal francs per kilogram, based on the 1956 CMR Convention. Due to the current price of gold on the world market, such amounts will almost invariably exceed the value of the actual damage, which constitutes a de facto abrogation of the carrier’s right to limit his liability. The co-existence of the two systems for establishing a carrier liability limit has led to a disunification of the issue of carrier liability limitation in the international carriage of goods. Conversely, in 2002, all provisions of the Croatian Road Transport Act of 1998 concerning the contract of the carriage by road in national transport were abolished, depriving Croatian law of its pertinent lex specialis. Consequently, claims for damages are subject to the lex generalis—the Civil Obligations Act of 2005, which provides no specific limit of liability. Since the special law has been abolished and the 1978 CMR-SDR Protocol was never ratified, Croatian transport law does not provide for the possibility to calculate the amount of the carrier liability limit in accordance with the internationally recognized amounts, which are often referred to in the conditions of professional carrier liability insurance policies. This de facto provision abolishes the right to limit liability for the Croatian road carrier, often also leaving him deprived of efficient insurance coverage. Such a situation also creates two distinctive legal regimes of limitation of liability right for the carrier within the CMR member states.