Warsaw Convention

This article is about the Convention on carriage by air. For the Cold War defense treaty, see Warsaw Pact.

Warsaw Convention

Convention for the Unification of certain rules relating to international carriage by air
Signed	12 October 1929
Location	Warsaw
Effective	13 February 1933
Parties	152
Depositary	Government of Poland
Language	French

The Warsaw Convention is an international convention which regulates liability for international carriage of persons, luggage or goods performed by aircraft for reward.

Summary

Originally signed in 1929 in Warsaw (hence the name), it was amended in 1955 at The Hague and in 1971 in Guatemala City. United States courts have held that, at least for some purposes, the Warsaw Convention is a different instrument from the Warsaw Convention as Amended by the Hague Protocol.

There are 5 chapters of the document:

• Chapter I – Definitions
• Chapter II – Documents of Carriage; Luggage and Passenger Ticket
• Chapter III – Liability of the Carrier
• Chapter IV – Provisions Relating to Combined Carriage
• Chapter V – General and Final Provisions

The Convention was written originally in French and the original of ratification shall be deposited in the archives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Poland.

In particular, the Warsaw Convention:

• mandates carriers to issue passenger tickets;
• requires carriers to issue baggage checks for checked luggage;
• creates a limitation period of 2 years within which a claim must be brought (Article 29); and
• limits a carrier's liability to at most:
  • 250,000 Francs or 16,600 special drawing rights (SDR) for personal injury;
  • 17 SDR per kilogram for checked luggage and cargo, or US$20 per kilogram for non-signatories of the amended Montreal Convention.
  • 5,000 Francs or 332 SDR for the hand luggage of a traveller.

The sums limiting liability were originally given in gold francs (defined in terms of a particular quantity of gold by article 22 paragraph 5 of the convention). These sums were amended by the Montreal Additional Protocol No. 2 to substitute an expression given in terms of SDR's. These sums are valid in the absence of a differing agreement (on a higher sum) with the carrier. Agreements on lower sums are null and void.

A court may also award a claiming party's costs, unless the carrier made an offer within 6 months of the loss (or at least 6 months before the beginning of any legal proceedings) which the claiming party has failed to beat. The Warsaw Convention provides that a plaintiff can file a lawsuit at his discretion in one of the following forums: 1- the carrier's principal place of business 2- the domicile of the carrier 3- the carrier's place of business through which the contract was made 4- the place of the destination The Montreal Convention, signed in 1999, replaced the Warsaw Convention system.

According to Clauses 17 and 18 of the Warsaw Convention, airline companies are liable for any damage that occurs to passengers or their belongings during in-flight. However, airline companies will not be held responsible if the damage results from the passenger's own fault or one of their temporary servants such as doctors assisting ill passengers on their own initiative (Clause 20). To be covered by air carriers, doctors should respond to captain's call when it comes to assisting ill passengers. Actually in such case, doctors are considered as their temporary servant who acted on their instructions. Major airlines are all covered by insurance to meet such contingencies and to cover doctors who act as their temporary agents.

Ratifications

As of 2013, the Warsaw Convention had been ratified by 152 states. The Protocol to the Convention had been ratified by 137 states.

History

On 17 August 1923, the French government proposed the convening of a diplomatic conference in November 1923 for the purpose of concluding a convention relating to liability in international carriage by air. The conference was formally deferred on two occasions due to reluctant behavior of the governments of various nations to act on such a short notice without the knowledge of the proposed convention. Finally, between 27 October and 6 November, the first conference met in Paris to study the draft convention. Since most of the participants were diplomats accredited to the French government and not professionals, it was agreed unanimously that a body of technical, legal experts be set up to study the draft convention prior to its submission to the diplomatic conference for approval. Accordingly in 1925, Committee International Technique of Experts Juridique Aeriens CITEJA was formed. In 1927–28 CITEJA studied and developed the proposed draft convention and developed it into the present package of unification of law and presented it at Warsaw Conference which was approved between 4 and 12 October 1929. It unified an important an important sector of private air law.

After coming into force on 13 February 1933, it resolved some conflicts of law and jurisdiction.

Warsaw Convention Unified The definition of International Carriage – The scope of applicability of the convention The rules concerning the documents of carriage The rules concerning the liability of carrier and its limitations The rules concerning the jurisdiction

In this convention there is a provision of successive carriage and a combined carriage partly by air and partly by other modes of transport as well.

Between 1948–51 it was further studied by a legal committee set up by ICAO and in 1952 a new draft was prepared to replace the convention. However it was rejected and it was decided that the convention be amended rather than replaced (Year1953). The work done by the legal committee at the Ninth session was presented to the International Conference on Air Law which was convened by the council of ICAO and met at Hague from 6 to 28 September 1955. The Hague conference adopted a Protocol for the amendment of the Warsaw Convention. Between the parties of Protocol, it was agreed that the 1929 Warsaw Convention and the Protocol were to be read and interpreted together as one single instrument to be known as the Warsaw Convention as amended at Hague, 1955. This was not an amendment to the convention but a creation of a new and separate legal instrument that is only binding between parties. If one country is a party to the Warsaw Convention and the other to the Hague Protocol, neither state has an instrument in common and therefore no mutual international ground for litigation.

See also

• Aviation Law
• CMR convention
• Kenneth Beaumont
• Montreal Convention

External links

• Beginner's guide to the Warsaw Convention