The Hague-Visby Rules are a set of international rules for the carriage of goods by sea. The official title is “International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law relating to Bills of Lading” and was drafted in Brussels in 1924. After being amended by the Visby Amendments (officially the “Protocol to Amend the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating to Bills of Lading”) in 1968, the Rules became known as the Hague-Visby Rules. A final amendment was made in the SDR Protocol in 1979. /n The premise of the Hague-Visby Rules (and of the earlier English Common Law) is that a carrier has far greater bargaining power than the shipper; and that to protect the interests of the shipper/cargo-owner, the law should impose minimum obligations upon the carrier.