The project centres on two aspects the analysis of which seems essential when assessing the contribution of transport to socio-economic development, i.e., the protection of the weak contracting party and the recent advances in liberalization of the transport sector. The different targets of the subproject are thus structured around two fundamental axes: the study of those contractual aspects that affect parties with limited bargaining power and the implications of the liberalization of the transport sector from a competition law point of view.

In particular, and with reference to the contractual aspects and the protection of the weak contracting party, the research will focus on those questions that might arouse interest as a consequence of recent legislative initiatives in this field. On the one hand, the application of the European draft regulation on asymmetric contracts on transport matters merits serious consideration. On the other hand, in Spain there still does not exist an adequate regulation of the passenger’s position in land transport, although there are different European instruments that frequently remit to domestic law. The situation is similar in air transport, where the draft modification of Regulation No. 261/2004 has not yet achieved sufficient consent for its final adoption. The only transport mode that counts on a modern legal text is maritime transport, although further research on the rights and obligations of the customer with respect to the carrier is required due to the virtual absence of legal studies in this field. Finally, mandatory insurance requirements are also of major interest, not only as regards passenger transport (where no transversal study for all transport modes exists) but also and above all in connection with recreational boating.

Furthermore, serious doubts do also exist with respect to the protection of the weak contracting party in contracts on the carriage of goods. In the field of maritime transport, for instance, in seems convenient to analyse the carriage on deck, where the imperative rules of international conventions on the carrier’s liability do not apply, as well as the liability of the performing carrier, the maritime transport of dangerous goods or the port handling contract.

With respect to the implications of liberalization for the efficiency and the quality of transport services, there are several questions of interest that have not been treated in former research projects or require updates due to recent developments. This is the case, for example, of the outstanding amendment of the Regulation that develops the Spanish Land Transport Organization Act (ROTT) and the new Rail Sector Act that is currently being discussed in Parliament. Finally, a research shall also be made into the so called collaborative transport —which, despite its more than evident implications from a competition law point of view, has received little attention from private law scholars in Spain—, as well as into the carriage of goods with unmanned aircraft (drones).