Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2006. / Thesis Advisor(s): Shoup, Frank. "September 2006." Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-64). Also available in print.

International multimodal transport continues to grow exponentially, while the relevant international legal framework becomes increasingly fragmented and complex. The establishment of a widely acceptable uniform international legal framework for multimodal transport contracts has proven to be extremely difficult, in spite of the various attempts initiated by some international organizations. Owing to the increasing use of containers to consolidate cargo, multimodal transport practice has become inevitable in the field of international trade based on its numerous advantages over the traditional unimodal carriage practices. Therefore, the urgent need of an internationally legal instrument to govern liability issues arising from multimodal carriage transactions is highly requested by trading parties. This research, however, present the difficulties involve when trying to establish liability issues arising from multimodal carriage claims and the impact it has on contracting parties who are never certain on which regime their contracts are based, instead depends on already existing unimodal liability regimes to sort out their disputes. The strengths and weaknesses of the two most recent attempts at producing a uniform legal regime for multimodal transport namely: The United Nations Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Goods 1980 (The UN Convention of 1980) and The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea (The Rotterdam Rules) are also examined in this research as none of these attempts appears to be a tenable solution. However, in the absence of a truly accepted international uniform legal regime for multimodal transport contracts, some nations, regional and sub-regional laws and regulations on multimodal transport contracts have been initiated. Despite the recognition of the Rotterdam Rules in certain jurisdictions, it will probably fail to achieve the aim of uniformity as intended because it’s merely a “maritime-plus” Convention. With the continuous development of containerization, there is an imperative need to have a multimodal transport convention which is broad enough in scope to govern the rights and liabilities of all parties in a multimodal carriage contracts, including inland carriers and their contractors or sub-carriers (referred to as performing parties) in the new Convention.

published_or_final_version / Transport Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-90).

Hazardous Materials are potentially harmful to people and environment due to their toxic ingredients. Although a significant portion of dangerous goods transportation is via railroads, prevailing studies on dangerous goods transport focus on highway shipments. We present an analytical framework that incorporates the differentiating features of trains in the assessment of risk. Each railcar is a potential source of release, and hence risk assessment of trains requires representation of multiple release sources in the model. We report on the use of the proposed approach for the risk assessment of the Ultra-train that passes through the city of Montreal everyday. The risk assessment methodology is then used to model the operations of freight trains in a network, wherein freight involves both hazardous and regular cargo. We present an optimization model distinct from the conventional ones, a Memetic Algorithm based solution technique, and a number of scenarios intended to gain numerical and managerial insights into the problem. In an effort to combine the economies of trains and efficiencies of trucks, we deal with rail-truck intermodalism for hazardous and non-hazardous cargo. Two special cases and a general case of rail-truck intermodal transportation models, driven by the element of ' time', are presented.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 90-92).

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Geography and Geology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1985.