Transport Law in Spain
Spain, with its free of cost arbitration courts, which negotiate cases to a amount of less than € 6.000,- and which arbitral awards are enforceable, is a good legal base for transport cases.
The “LOTT” (Ley Organica del Transporte Terrestre, in English: “Supplementary Constitutional Law of the inland transport)”, and its regulation are the two main legal texts for specific goods transport by road and rail and passenger transport.
Furthermore, there are general regulations in the commercial and civil law, and added a wealth of standards and legal ramifications, that companies working in this sector describe as excessive.
The main feature of the LOTT is the fact that the transport company has not necessarily to be the owner of the vehicle units.
There is a reform project of the LOTT, which, however, is currently due for the November forthcoming Parliamentary elections put on ice. This reform has the purpose to update and complete the legal basis for the contract for the carriage of goods by land, which will mean in practice an increase in regulation.
This convention also includes important provisions of the freight according to the CMR (the European Convention on the Contract for the international road freight transport) in conjunction with the Spanish legislation.
The Spanish legislator is seeking to modernize the contract provisions in road transport - a project which unfortunately is lost under an excessive regulation of this sector.
Regarding the international traffic Spain has joined international conventions as the CMR of 1956, the “Geneva UN convention to multimodal international freight traffic” of 1980, and the “Customs convention on the international transport of Goods" (Transport Internationaux Routiers = TIR).
In summary, it can be said that Spain provides competitive legal procedures for conflict resolution, however has a disadvantage with the excessive regulation just one the trade sector that comes up with tradition, and probably will continue this path in the future.