The New Montreal Liability Convention, Major Changes in International Air Law: An End to the Warsaw Convention

Abstract

The 1929 International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air (Warsaw Convention, Warsaw Treaty, or Warsaw System), long the multinational treaty governing all liability for losses incurred during an international commercial air flight, and that also provides consistency in such claims, has been replaced by the new Montreal Liability Convention.
However, this new Convention in fact operates as a revocation of the Warsaw Convention by removing all set liability limits and provides for a different amount of damages to be recovered by every passenger traveling in the Warsaw system. Furthermore, the new Convention totally eliminates the principle underlying article 25(1) of the Warsaw Treaty, which prohibited unlimited damages unless the airline was proven guilty of willful misconduct.
This Article contrasts and compares the two treaties in light of the expectations of the parties and shows how the new treaty, in eliminating the bases for liability limits previously established under the Warsaw Treaty, has created a system that is in effect the U.S. liability system applied internationally.