Being English courts not entitled to apply foreign lois de police under art.7(1) of the Convention, it is essential, to avoid the ‘gost’ of the Vita Food Products decision, to recognize once for all that choice, express or implied, of English law as the law governing the contract means the whole English law, and not, only, part of it. The carriage of goods by sea has been, since the first half of the last century, one of the fields where the unification efforts have been more successful, due to the fact that contract, together with the sale , can be said to represent one of the situations more likely to give rise to a problem of conflict of law. The international harmonization has been achieved through the adoption, by the biggest part maritime countries, of a uniform substantive law, regulating some of the most important aspects of the contract carriage of goods by sea, known as The Hauge Rules or, in their 1968 amended version, as The Hauge/Visby Rules.
