Protocol of 1990 to amend the Athens Convention Relating to the Carriage of Passengers and Their Luggage by Sea, 1974

General Information

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What is it about?

The main aim of the Protocol is to raise the amount of compensation available in the event of deaths or injury at 175,000 SDR (around US$224,000). Other limits are 1,800 SDR (about US$2,300) for loss of or damage to cabin luggage and 10,000 SDR (about US$12,800) for loss of or damage to vehicles. The Protocol also makes provision for the "tacit acceptance" procedure to be used to amend the limitation amounts in the future.

Why is it relevant?

Although the Protocol is in fact superseded by the 2002 Protocol and is therefore no longer relevant for ratification purposes, not all the states, which ratified the 1990 Protocol, have yet gone on to ratify the 2002 Protocol.

Additional Information

The 1974 Convention consolidates and harmonizes the regime of liability for damage suffered by passengers carried on seagoing vessels. Liability was incurred where the incident occurred through the fault of the carrier. Three Protocols followed the convention, although the 2002 Protocol is considered the most important. It replaced the fault based liability system with a strict liability system. Originally the 1990 Protocol was intended to come into force after 10 states ratified. However, due to the adoption of the 2002 Protocol, the 1990 Protocol will never come into force.

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