Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air

General Information

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What is it about?

This Convention lays down the basic rules in the area of claims arising in international carriage of persons, baggage or cargo performed by aircraft.

Why is it relevant?

This instrument is designed to replace the Warsaw Convention System and to eliminate the need for the patchwork of regulation and private voluntary agreements. With regard to the Warsaw System, it contains the following developments: the removal of all arbitrary limits on recovery for passenger death or injury; the imposition of strict liability (no-fault liability) on carriers for the first 100,000 SDR (approximately 141.000 USD) of proven damages in the event of passenger death or injury (in the Warsaw System, limits to liability applied in all cases except where the harm was due to the carrier wilful misconduct); the expansion of the bases for jurisdiction for claims relating to passenger death or injury to permit suits in the passenger's homeland if certain conditions are met; the clarification of the obligations of carriers engaged in code-sharing operations (it is a co-operation between airlines where one airline offers transport services under its own name by using the services of another carrier); and the preservation of all key benefits achieved for the air cargo industry by the previous conventions (see Montreal Protocol No. 4).

Additional Information

This Convention prevails over any rules which apply to international carriage by air between States Parties to this Convention. These rules that have been superseded by the Montreal Convention include the following instruments: a) the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air signed at Warsaw on 12 October 1929 (hereinafter called the Warsaw Convention); (b) the Protocol to amend the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air signed at Warsaw on 12 October 1929, done at The Hague on 28 September 1955 (hereinafter called The Hague Protocol); (c) the Convention, Supplementary to the Warsaw Convention, for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air Performed by a Person other than the Contracting Carrier, signed at Guadalajara on 18 September 1961 (hereinafter called the Guadalajara Convention); (d) the Protocol to amend the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air signed at Warsaw on 12 October 1929 as amended by the Protocol done at The Hague on 28 September 1955, signed at Guatemala City on 8 March 1971 (hereinafter called the Guatemala City Protocol); (e) Additional Protocol Nos. 1 to 3 and Montreal Protocol No. 4 to amend the Warsaw Convention as amended by The Hague Protocol or the Warsaw Convention asamended by both The Hague Protocol and the Guatemala City Protocol, signed at Montreal on 25 September 1975 (hereinafter called the Montreal Protocols). Since the Montreal Convention is recent and it is still ratified by a limited number of countries, States may wish to consider ratifying it in conjunction with the Warsaw Convention and its amendments.

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