Ellen Eftestøl-Wilhelmsson and Anu Bask November 26, 2010 Academic session: A Nordic/European Network on Transport Law and Logistics

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1 Ellen Eftestøl-Wilhelmsson and Anu Bask November 26, 2010 Academic session: A Nordic/European Network on Transport Law and Logistics

2 Sustainable Freight. Legal and logistical impacts of the European intermodal transport chain project. Funded by Academy of Finland Project leader: prof. Lena Sisula-Tulokas

3 Interdisciplinary research project focusing on the expanding new, European transport policy from a legal and logistical point of view. The European Commission has defined a strategy towards a target of sustainable freight. The aim is to disconnect mobility from its adverse effects by promoting co-modality, i.e. optimally combining various modes of transport within the same transport chain, so called intermodal or multimodal transport. The object of this research project is to analyse the above mentioned development towards sustainable freight within the European Union from the point of view of private law and economical logistics. Traditionally environmental issues have been ignored as regards regulating the contract between the parties in private agreements.

4 From a normative perspective the research interest lies in the correlation of the general discussion and the proposed provisions. A key question is whether or not green arguments are, or can be, relevant in international transport law and particularly in the EU context. Theoretically the question relates to the general much debated issue to what extent societal (e.g. environmental) policies can and should be pursued through the means of private law. This will be analyzed both with regard to the task of the Freight Integrator as well as to the proposed liability regime. One might ask in which way the environmental issue will influence the interpretation of the duties of the Transport Integrator and the liability connected to breach of contract.

5 Ellen Eftestøl-Wilhelmsson Intertran research leader has a main interest in the interface between the political development of a European Transport Policy and the legal development of a new liability regime for multimodal transport mainly in Europe, but also globally. will particularly concentrate on the theoretical question of to what extent societal (e.g. environmental) policies can and should be pursued through the means of private law (see e.g. recently Hanoch Dagan, 56 AM. J. COMP. L. 809(2008)), using the invention of Freight Integrators and the question on liability as an example. Lalli Castrén Intertran project researcher writing his doctoral thesis on the cargo liability of air carriers according to the Montreal Convention. This type of liability, a combination of strict liability and an unbreakable limit of liability, differs considerably from what would be considered the norm in transport law and general contract law in European countries. will analyse how this form of liability can function in a multimodal transport environment. In addition he will examine Scandinavian air law more generally with particular impact on environmental questions such as the important question on emission trading.

6 From a logistical perspective the main object is to evaluate whether or not the assumptions of the Commission on the need for a legal instrument is representative for the industry itself. Another key issue is whether or not sustainability is becoming a competitive advantage for the door-to-door providers. Will study the implications of modularity to intermodal transports e.g. companies business models, services production processes, and legal environment. It is argued that modularity provides flexibility and enables firms to serve a variety of customer needs (Schilling and Steensma, 2001; Voordijk et al., 2006). Modularization makes it possible to integrate and disintegrate business components efficiently and effectively, either by sharing modular components internally, or by outsourcing modular components to external suppliers (Janssen and Joha, 2008). Modularity approach enables research of multimodal transport solutions from new innovative perspectives as multimodal transportation can be seen consisting of modular process steps and interfaces between the process steps consisting of data, people and contracts between firms that build up the multimodal transport chain.

7 Anu Bask Intertran: Responsibility of the logistical part has her background in logistics research and is an expert in supply chain management and supply chain relationships. Mervi Rajahonka Intertran project researcher doctoral student in logistics and her research focuses on modular logistics services and processes as well as new innovative modular business models, including research on efficient, cost effective and customer responsive logistics chains in the multimodal transport alternative.

8 Ellen Eftestøl-Wilhelmsson Anu Bask

9 Welcome to Helsinki!