Glossary term
Package
A single item of packing presented for carriage, and the unit many liability limits are calculated on.
One unit of packing as tendered to the carrier. The word carries more weight than it appears to: carrier liability under several international conventions is capped per package, so what counts as a package can determine the ceiling on a claim.
Whether a container is one package, or as many packages as the goods inside it, has been litigated repeatedly - which is why the number of packages is stated on the bill of lading rather than left to inference.