Luxembourg Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock

Luxembourg Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock - Preparatory work – Study LXXII H

Diplomatic Conference to adopt the draft Protocol on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment

The Government of Luxembourg decided to convene a diplomatic Conference to adopt the draft Protocol on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment adopted in Cape Town on 1 November 2001. The Conference was held under the joint auspices of UNIDROIT and the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) in Luxembourg from 12 to 23 February 2007.
Following a decision taken by the Conference, the texts of the Luxembourg Protocol on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock and the Resolutions adopted by the Conference are subject to verification by the Secretariat of the Conference under the authority of the President of the Conference within a period of ninety days from the date of the Final Act (23 February 2007) as to the linguistic changes required to make the texts in the different languages consistent with one another. The final texts will therefore be available after this period.

Committee of governmental experts for the preparation of a draft Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters Specific to Railway Rolling Stock

First session of the Committee of governmental experts for the preparation of a draft Protocol to the Cape Town Convention on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock (Berne, 15-16 March 2001) - Report (UNIDROIT 2001 - Study LXXII H - Doc. 5 )

The first session of the Committee of governmental experts for the preparation of a draft Protocol to the Cape Town Convention on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock, on the basis of the preliminary draft Protocol prepared by the Rail Working Group, organised, at the invitation of the President of UNIDROIT, by Mr H. Rosen, as amended by a UNIDROIT Steering and Revisions Committee, was held, at the seat of the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF), in Berne on 15 and 16 March 2001. Pursuant to the decision taken by the UNIDROIT Governing Council at its 79^th session (Lisbon, 10 to 13 April 2000) and to that taken by the fourth General Assembly of OTIF (Athens, 8 to 11 September 1997), this Committee of governmental experts is sponsored jointly by UNIDROIT and OTIF.
Mr K.F. Kreuzer (Germany) was elected Chairman of the Committee, Ms I. Weinberg de Roca (Argentina) Deputy Chairman and Sir Roy Goode (United Kingdom) Rapporteur. During its session the Committee proceeded to carry out a first reading of the preliminary draft Protocol (UNIDROIT 2000 - Study LXXII H - Doc.4 ). It was agreed that the task of implementing the amendments agreed during that reading should be carried out by a restricted Drafting Committee composed of representatives of certain Governments represented in Berne. This restricted Drafting Committee met in Rome from 4 to 6 February 2002 and amended the text of the draft Protocol on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock in the light of discussions held on the occasion of the first reading but also in order to make the necessary amendments following the adoption in Cape Town on 16 November 2001 of the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and of the Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters specific to Aircraft Equipment.

Second session of the Committee of governmental experts for the preparation of a draft Protocol to the Cape Town Convention on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock (Rome, 17-19 June 2002) - Report (UNIDROIT 2002 - Study LXXII H - Doc. 7

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The text of the preliminary draft Protocol on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock (UNIDROIT 2002 - Study LXXII H - Doc.6 ) was submitted to the Committee of Governmental Experts at its second session held in Rome from 17 to 19 June 2002.
The Drafting Committee met at the UNIDROIT headquarters from 23 to 25 October 2002 to implement the decisions taken during the second session. The UNIDROIT and OTIF Secretariats transmitted to the member States of the two organisations and to interested international Organisations the text of the preliminary draft Rail Protocol as revised by the Drafting Committee in English and French (UNIDROIT 2002 - Study LXXII H - Doc. 8 ).

Third session of the Committee of governmental experts for the preparation of a draft Protocol to the Cape Town Convention on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock (Berne, 5-13 May 2003) - Report (UNIDROIT 2003 - Study LXXII H - Doc. 13

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The preliminary draft Rail Protocol as revised by the Drafting Committee in English and French (UNIDROIT 2002 - Study LXXII H - Doc. 8 ) was submitted to the Committee of governmental experts at its third session. Ms I. Weinberg De Roca (Argentina) replaced Mr K.F. Kreuzer as Chairperson of the Committee, Mr A. Leinonen (Finland) was elected Vice-Chairperson.
This unusually long session enabled the special Rail Registry Task Force to meet several times and thus to achieve a compromise on the preliminary draft Rail Protocol's registry provisions. For the first time the Committee of governmental experts had sufficient time to consider the entirety of the provisions of the preliminary draft Protocol (it bears recalling, however, that the first and second sessions lasted only two and three days respectively) and the Drafting Committee was able to meet three times to finalise the text finally adopted by the Committee of governmental experts at its last meeting ( UNIDROIT 2003 - Study LXXII H - Doc. 14 ).

Special Rail Registry Task Force

At its first session the Committee of governmental experts agreed to establish a special Rail Registry Task Force the task of which would be to report back to it on several questions:
on the extent to which the conclusions reached by the International Registry Task Force that had carried out preparatory work on the international registration system for aircraft equipment could be applied to the operation of the Rail Registry;
an analysis of existing or possible future railway rolling stock registration systems;
on the advantages and disadvantages of making special provision for registration systems in unified transnational railway networks;
regarding the unique identification criteria and how they were registered;
on the utility and cost of a lexicon of equivalent descriptions of railway rolling stock and regarding any other technical or operational issues and the relevant legal implications.
Mr F. Croccolo (Italy), later replaced by Mr H. Kjellin (Sweden), and Mr P. Bloch (United States of America) were appointed co-Chairmen of the special Rail Registry Task Force, which met for the first time in Rome from 20 to 22 March 2002, for the second time in Washington, D.C. on 19 and 20 March 2003, for the third time in Brussels from 21 to 23 September 2004 and for the fourth time in Rome from 22 to 24 February 2005.
The last meeting of the special Rail Registry Task Force was preceded by the “Cape Town Registry Workshop” held on 21 février 2005 in the course of which Mr Jeffrey Wool, Secretary to and General Counsel of the Aviation Working Group introduced and explained the solutions provided by the Aircraft Protocol with respect to the registration system, thereby enabling participants to discuss the advisabilitiy of retaining some of them in the draft Protocol on Matters specific to Railway Rolling Stock and in the preliminary draft Protocol on Matters specific to Space Assets.

Regional seminars

The Governing Council of UNIDROIT had noted with satisfaction the consensus that had been established around the latest version of the preliminary draft Rail Protocol at the third session of the Committee of governmental experts (Berne, Mai 2003) and encouraged the organisation of regional seminars envisaged by the Secretariats of UNIDROIT and of the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF), to promote awareness of the future Rail Protocol and the benefits it could bring in countries evidently in urgent need of private foreign investment in their railway infrastructures but which had not participated in the meetings of the Committee of governmental experts. Seminars in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa were envisaged.
In co-operation with the Government of Poland a regional seminar for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe was held in Warsaw on 15 and 16 April 2004 at the headquarters of the Organisation for the Collaboration between Railways (OSShD OSJD). Representatives from some twenty States in the region as well as numerous interested business persons participated.
Acts of the Warsaw Seminar (UNIDROIT 2004 - Study LXXVII H - Doc. 15 )
The second seminar, for countries in America, was held on 11 and 12 October 2004 under the auspices of the Government of Mexico and the Mexican Center of Uniform Law whose Director is M. Jorge Sánchez Cordero, member of the Governing Council of UNIDROIT. The seminar was opened by the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs in the presence also of the Minister of Transport.
Acts of the Mexico City Seminar (UNIDROIT 2004 - Study LXXVII H - Doc. 16 ) [in English/Spanish]
The third seminar, for countries in Africa, was held in Lomé (Togo) on 17 November 2006, organised jointly by AFRICARAIL and UNIDROIT: "The Cape Town Convention and its Rail Protocol - A new driving force for rail investments in Africa". This seminar was designed for players in the field of rail investments in Africa and explained all the economic benefits States and investors can draw from the application of the future Railway Protocol.
Programme - Final Statement - Summary Report

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Documents issued in connection with UNIDROIT's work on interests in railway rolling stock – Study LXXII H

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Select bibliography of UNIDROIT's work on international interests in mobile equipment

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