On 11 December 2008 The UN General Assembly adopted the "Convention of Contracts for the International Carrying of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea" and authorized a signing ceremony for the Convention to be held in Rotterdam, recommending the new Convention to be known as the "Rotterdam Rules".
 
The Convention extends and modernizes the existing international rules relating to contract of maritime carriage of goods. The aim is that the Convention will replace The Hague rules, The Hague-Visby rules and the Hamburg rules and that it will achieve uniformity of law in the field of maritime carriage.
 
The Rotterdam Rules have been prepared in intergovernmental negotiations that lasted for over 10 years by the United Nations Commission for International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). On the other hand the Comité Maritime International (CMI) conducted the preparatory work on the Convention at the request of UNCITRAL including a preliminary draft text for the Convention. The signing ceremony was held in Rotterdam from 20 to 23 September 2009. In the meantime the following - 24- coutries have signed the Convention; Armenia, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, France, Gabon, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, the Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Senegal, Spain, Sweden, Switserland, Togo, and the United States of America, all together representing 25% of the world's trade. In the meantime Spain has become the first nation to ratify the Rotterdam Rules.

Also the European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA), the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), BIMCO and the World Shipping Council (WSC) have greatly welcomed the clear recommendation by the European Parliament that EU Member States should move “speedily to sign, ratify and implement the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea, known as the ‘Rotterdam Rules’, establishing the new maritime liability system”. The Rotterdam Rules, adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) will replace the existing cargo liability regimes such as the Hamburg and Hague/Visby Rules.  Shipowner organisations firmly believe that this will achieve greater global uniformity for cargo liability, facilitating e-commerce through use of electronic documentation, reflecting modern ‘door to door’ services involving other modes of transport in addition to the sea-leg and ‘just in time’ delivery practices. Following a thorough and detailed analysis of the Rotterdam Rules, ECSA, ICS, BIMCO and WSC have all concluded that this important new regime must be promoted by the industry to avoid the risk of a proliferation of regional cargo liability regulations. However, early ratification of the UNCITRAL Convention by major trading nations, such as EU Member States, will almost certainly give this process critical momentum, as can be read on www.bimco.org.

The Convention will come into force one year after ratification by the 20th UN Member state. Although there is reported to the widespread support for the Convention, the expectation is that it may be some time before the Rotterdam Rules enter into force.