JT Aviation College, Kolkata
(Collaboration with MAKAUT, West Bengal)
BBA (Aviation Management) CBSC Structure
Semester – 4: Paper Code: BBA(AM) 404
Module: V Convention
Chapter - 3
The Warsaw Convention ,1920
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
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.
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The conference was formally deferred on two occasions due
to reluctant behaviour 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, the International Technical Committee of Legal
Experts on Air Questions (Comité International Technique
d’ExpertsJuridiquesAériens, CITEJA) was formed in 1925.
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 the Warsaw Conference,
where it was approved between 4 and 12 October 1929. It unified
an important sector of private air law.
The Convention was written originally in French and the
original documents were deposited in the archives of the Ministry
for Foreign Affairs of Poland. After coming into force on 13
February 1933, it resolved some conflicts of law and jurisdiction.
Between 1948 and 1951 it was further studied by a legal
committee set up by the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) and in 1952 a new draft was prepared to
replace the [Link], it was rejected and it was
decided that the convention be amended rather than replaced in
1953.
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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 the ICAO and met at The
Hague from 6 to 28 September 1955.
The Hague Conference adopted a Protocol (the Hague Protocol) for
the amendment of the Warsaw Convention. Between the parties of the
Protocol, it was agreed that the 1929 Warsaw Convention and the 1955
Hague Protocol were to be read and interpreted together as one single
instrument to be known as the Warsaw Convention as amended at the
Hague in 1955.
This was not an amendment to the convention but rather a
creation of a new and separate legal instrument that is only
binding between the parties. If one nation is a party to the
Warsaw Convention and another to the Hague Protocol, neither
state has an instrument in common and therefore there is no
mutual international ground for litigation.
Finally, the Montreal Convention, signed in 1999, replaced
the Warsaw Convention [Link] Convention for the
Unification of certain rules relating to international carriage
by air, commonly known as the Warsaw Convention, is an
international convention which regulates liability for
international carriage of persons, luggage, or goods performed
by aircraft for reward.
Originally signed in 1929 in Warsaw (hence the name), it
was amended in 1955 at The Hague, Netherlands, and in 1971
in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
The Montreal Convention, signed in 1999, replaced the
Warsaw Convention system in countries ratifying it.
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