TITLE:
Evaluation on the Effectiveness of Tanzania’s Legal and Institutional Frameworks in Enforcing International Rules on Carriage of Goods by Sea
AUTHORS:
Mwantumu Yusuf Selle, Hiacinter Burchard Rwechungura
KEYWORDS:
Tanzania, Maritime Arbitration, Carriage of Goods by Sea, Hague-Visby Rules, Dispute Resolution, Institutional Effectiveness
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.13 No.11,
November
11,
2025
ABSTRACT: Efficient, predictable enforcement of the Hague-Visby Rules is critical to Tanzania’s competitiveness in global supply chains, yet circumstantial evidence suggests systematic delays and uncertainty. This paper evaluates Tanzania’s performance using a sequential mixed-methods design. Phase 1 undertook the Analysis on Statutes governing Carriage of Goods by Sea, Case and Judgments of the Court on Carriage of Goods by Sea and Phase 2 collected Surveyed data from 50 purposively selected Stakeholders and 16 semi-structured interviews. A five-item Perceived-Mechanism Effectiveness Scale (α = 0.81) yielded a mean score of 2.34/5, signaling broad dissatisfaction. A Relative importance index ranked the absence of a Specialist Maritime Forum as the most severe obstacle (0.88), followed by long Court procedures (0.81) and Award Enforcement Weaknesses (0.77). Thematic coding of interview transcripts highlighted knowledge gaps, institutional fragmentation and “cargo leakage” to rival ports. Logistic regression confirmed that a one-point drop in institutional confidence triples the odds of dispute-related financial loss (β = –1.21, p = 0.04). These results validate Transaction-Cost Economics and Institutional Theory: high governance costs and low legitimacy divert trade elsewhere.