The first international convention on maritime transportation is the Brussels’ Convention of 1924. This convention was widely accepted throughout the world and; thus, lasted for a long time due to the widespread support of the countries possessing fleet for this convention and the lack of existence of a legal document in terms of maritime transportation. The passage of time together with innovations and technical developments proved the inadequacy of this convention in balancing between the transport contractors. Hence, with the efforts of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Hamburg Convention was ratified in 1978. The Hamburg Convention; however, faced failure as it was not widely accepted by the countries possessing fleet. In 2008, the Rotterdam Convention was ratified with the aim of gathering the consent of countries possessing fleet which are mostly developed countries and the countries possessing goods which are mostly developing countries. This article presents the translation of the text of the Rotterdam Convention.
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