Limitation of liability in international air transport.

摘要

The Warsaw Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air was adopted when aviation was in its developing stage. In order to protect this infant industry, the Convention limited the liability of the air carrier in international air transportation to certain specified amounts. As time went by the Warsaw Convention was amended by several instruments. The end result is that there are several instruments to regulate the liability of air carriers engaged in international air transportation and most of these instruments provide only limited recovery to passengers. Often, passengers try to break the limits prescribed by the Convention alleging willful misconduct on the part of the carrier, his servants or agents or by bringing suits against potentially liable third parties like the aircraft manufacturer or by proving that the documents of carriage were faulty. In the mean time, Italy and Japan took matters into their own hands and raised the limits unilaterally. While Italy raised the limits to 100,000 SDR, Japan waived entirely the Warsaw systems limits of liability.; In this thesis, the development of air law till the adoption of the Warsaw Convention and the various amendments carried out to the Convention over the years will be discussed in the first two chapters. The third chapter mainly concentrates on the rationales for ratifying the Guatemala City Protocol through Montreal Protocol No. 3. While arriving at a conclusion as to why the Montreal Protocols have to be ratified for the successful unification of air carriers liability in international air transport, the Italian and Japanese "solutions" will be evaluated and conclude why those solutions are to be rejected outright. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)