Alexander von Ziegler was appointed expert by the UNCITRAL Secretariat for the evaluation of work undertaken by an international expert group on the Use of Railway Consignment Notes and Possible Future work by UNCITRAL on documents of title in multimodal transport based on his experience in the field of trade and transport as attorney, academic and delegate to UNCITRAL in relation to the Rotterdam Rules on the Carriage of Goods by Sea and to the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) in relation to INCOTERMS.

The project of UNCITRAL is significant due to the increased interest for global trade to strengthen railroad connections between South-East Asia and Europe as an alternative to ocean transit (in particular from China). In this context, suitable international frameworks are required that would allow goods transported to be negotiated in a way that traditionally (maritime) bills of ladings are used, in particular in trade finance (e.g. documentary credit).

The initiative by UNCITRAL is in connection with a proposal made by the Government of the People’s Republic of China at the 52nd session of UNCITRAL, towards the development of a negotiable transport document to facilitate multimodal carriage of goods, particularly by railway in the Euro-Asian space.