Comparative and Analytical Review of Basis for Carrier Responsibility of Internal Law with Carrier Responsibility of Railway Transport Based on the International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Convention

Different legal systems govern on the basis of carrier responsibility. In the Iranian civil law the theory of fault must be proved is followed, while in the trade law the carrier responsibility is based on the fault theory. At the level of international the thought of codification of uniform regulations on the railway transport action system eventually led to the COTIF 1980 Convention that is under CIM regulations. The said Convention has had various amendments through many years and ultimately led to the approval of the VILNIUS or COTIF 1999 protocol. In this regulation the carrier responsibility is based on the responsibility assumption. Thus once the occurrence of the losses is realized, the responsibility is assumed, and is exempted from the responsibility only in the case that proves that the damages caused from an external accident and inevitable. In the 1999 regulations about the carrier responsibility however, in the case of lost or damage of rail transportation systems and railway equipment the theory of assumption fault is followed and therefore with the proof of innocence and doing conventional actions is exempted from responsibility.