Reform of the liability provisions of the convention for the unification of certain rules relating to international carriage by air signed at Warsaw on 12 october 1929
Date
2013-02-21
Authors
Kakubo, Mwanchela
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Abstract
This paper is an attempt to identify the problems surrounding the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International carriage by air ( Warsaw Convention) one of the goals of the Convention was to unify the regulations relating to air travel and to harmonise the different aspects relating to cross boarder flights. Despite the world wide acceptance of the Warsaw Convention it still had its flaws and was subjected to amendments. These amendments have usually focused of the provisions relating to the limitation of liability of the carrier amongst others, this paper focuses on the limitation of liability provisions only. This became a concern as some member states for instance the United States of America considered the then limitation of liability of the carrier which was approximately limited to US $ 8,300 as being too low. This led to the United States' denunciation of the Warsaw Convention, delegates met at the Hague to amend the Warsaw Convention particularly addressing the possibility of increasing the limitation of liability of liability of the carrier. The result of these conferences at the Hague produced the Protocol to Amend the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air (The Hague Protocol 1955). The Hague Protocol doubles the carriers' limitation of liability to approximately US $ 16,600. This still proved to be inadequate as calls for further increase were once again echoed. So a new convention was born amending the Hague protocol of 1995 this was The Montreal Convention which introduced new provisions of liability of the carrier for instance it introduced the provision providing for limitation of liability of the carrier to 4,150 Special Drawings in the case of passenger delay and 1000 Special Drawings per passenger. This paper considers the weakness and loopholes in the Conventions, the reasons and need for amends which have been carried out. It concludes by providing recommendations as to what measures need to be taken or rather considered in order to improve the current Montreal Convention of J 999.
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Aeronautics--freight , Aeronautics--passenger traffic--law and legislation