2.1 Introduction
The question of whether an international convention may govern a particular question of law, depends on whether the factual situation underlying the question of law is covered by the convention, upon a proper interpretation of that convention’s regulation of its scope of application. The following will therefore analyze which factual criteria must be satisfied for the maritime conventions to apply. The intention is to cover the maritime conventions presently in force, including the York Antwerp Rules 2016, which, albeit not technically a convention, but instead soft law, for all intents and purposes serves the same function as a convention in maritime regulation.
The conventions will be divided into three categories based on their content, i.e., whether they are of general application (section 2.2), related to contracts of carriage (section 2.3), or concerned with tort law or negotiorum gestio aspects of maritime activities (section 2.4). Finally, the extract of the analysis will be presented (section 2.5), providing the basis for the further discussion on the potential pitfalls for the convention regime, which takes place in section 3.