Travaux Préparatoires. The question of compensation for mental injury was briefly discussed for the first time in the context of preparations for the 1955 Hague Protocol. During the preparatory proceedings, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law commented that: ‘the expression “bodily injury” should be understood to mean any harm to the physical or mental integrity of the person’.118 During the 1955 Hague Conference, the delegation for Greece wished to make it clear whether injury not connected to physical damage, such as fear, could be compensated. He suggested the addition of the following sentence to Article 17: ‘…or any other mental or bodily injury suffered by 116 See, Huib Drion, Limitation of Liabilities in International Air Law 125 (Springer, 1954); Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx, National Airlegislations and the Warsaw Convention 269 (Springer, 1937); Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxx, Liability In International Air Transport 125 (Kluwer 1977); Xxxx Xxxxxx- wicz, The Liability Regime of the International Air Carrier - A Commentary on the Present Warsaw Convention System 187 (Kluwer, 1981). See also, the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, Xxxxxxxxx, Individually and as Executrix of the Estate of Kole, et. al. v. Korean Air Lines Co, Ltd., 516 U.S. 217 (1996), at 225. Compare this with the European decision, CJEU, 6 May 2010, Xxxx Xxxx v. Clickair SA., C-63/09, ECLI:EU:C:2010:251. 117 Article 17 of the 1929 Warsaw Convention provides that: ‘The carrier is liable for damage sustained in the event of the death or wounding of a passenger or any other bodily injury suffered by a passenger […]’; or in its authentic version: ‘Le transporteur est responsable du dommage survenu en cas de mort, de blessure ou de tout autre lésion corporelle subie par un voyageur […]’. The wording was slightly amended in the 1999 version and reads: ‘The carrier is liable for damage sustained in case of death or bodily injury of a passenger […]’. Xx. Xxxxxx Xxxxx-Dannery commented in 1933 that the word ‘injury’, which may be seen as redundant with the word ‘wounding’ in the 1929 text, reflected in reality the condition or aggravation that may have happened after the accident took place: ‘Lorsque la blessure ou la mort sont consécutives à l’accident, il n’y a pas de difficulté. Mais si le décès ou la nécessité d’une intervention chirurgicale se produisent postérieurement, c’est-à-dire après que la période de transport aérien est terminée, la responsabilité est exactement la même. L’emploi du...
Travaux Préparatoires. Initially, it was foreseen in the draft text submitted to the 1929 Warsaw Conference that suspension and interruption causes would be determined by the law of the Court seized of the case.159 But, during said conference, the Italian delegation suggested changing this paradigm in favour of an unbreakable two-year limit.160 As cited below, before the adoption of this amendment, the French delegate, while seconding the Italian proposal, voiced that the renvoi to domestic law concerned the manner of seizing the Court within the indicated timeframe. He noted that in certain jurisdictions a preliminary conciliation was requested, while this was not the case in other jurisdictions:
Travaux Préparatoires. Despite only minor changes to the English wording of this provision in the 1999 Montreal Convention, its Travaux Préparatoires unfortunately shed more ambiguity on this facet. While the Preparatory Material makes it clear that: ‘To avoid different interpretations, it may be appropriate to clarify that this provision does not entitle a Court in any circumstances to interrupt or suspend the two-year period’,168 the Minutes do not reflect this point clearly. The delegate for Greece expressed this concern as follows: 165 Cass., 14 January 1977, 74-15061: ‘Attendu que, pour déclarer irrecevable comme tardive l’action en réparation engagée […] au nom de son fils mineur […] l’arrêt attaqué énonce que le délai de deux ans imparti sous xxxxx de déchéance par l’article 2 de la loi du 2 mars 1957 comme par l’article 29 de la Convention de Varsovie pour intenter l’action en responsabilité contre le transporteur aérien est un délai préfix et que ce caractère résulte sinon de l’expression sous xxxxx de déchéance, qui ne lui confère pas nécessairement, du moins de la finalité du texte telle que la révèle l’intention du législateur français qui s’est expressément référé aux seules dispositions de la Convention de Varsovie dont les travaux préparatoires expriment nettement l’intention de ses auteurs de ne soumettre le délai à aucune cause de suspension; Attendu, cependant, que si la Convention de Varsovie du 12 octobre 1929, […], prévoit que l’action en responsabilité doit être intentée à xxxxx de déchéance dans un délai de deux ans, il n’existe dans ces textes aucune dispo- sition expresse selon laquelle, par dérogation aux principes du droit interne français, xx xxxxx ne serait susceptible ni d’interruption, ni de suspension […]; Par ces motifs casse et annule’. 166 See, for instance, Cass., 1 July 1977, 75-15443; Cass., 26 April 1984, 82-12048; Cass., 24 May 2018,16-26.200. 167 Cass., 21 May 2015, 27/2015. 168 ICAO Doc 9775, International Conference on Air Law (Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air), Montreal, 10 – 28 May 1999, volume III, Preparatory Material, Montreal 1999, p. 71. […] the limitation period of two years stipulated in Article 29 had caused prob- lems in jurisprudence in the past. If this was a statute of limitations which could be suspended by national domestic legislation, [he] believed this should be clari- fied so as not to leave such an ambiguity in the scope of the Convention.169 The delegate for Namibia ...
Travaux Préparatoires. Although the 1969 Vienna Convention permits recourse to the Travaux Prépa- ratoires as a supplementary interpretation aid in specific circumstances,153 in 148 CJEU, 7 November 2019, Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx, e.a. v. easyJet Airline Co. Ltd, C-213/18, ECLI:EU:C:2019:927, at 53-54. 149 See, section 3.2.4.3(5)(iv). 150 Xxxxxx x. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, (2002) UKHL 7, at 25: ‘[…] I accept that courts of law cannot ignore advances in scientific knowledge. […] statutes are generally always speaking, and ought therefore to be interpreted in light of the contemporary social and scientific world. This is not a rule of law but a principle of construction […] Given that the rationale of the principle is that statutes are generally intended to endure for a long time, one can readily accept that multilateral international trade conventions, which are by statute incorporated in our law, should be approached in a similar way’. 151 Ibid., at 26: ‘[…] if cases of mental injuries and illnesses are to be brought within the Convention system, it must be done by amendment of the Convention system and not by judicial creativity’. See also, Xxxxx v. Xxxxxx Xxxx Tour Operators Ltd, (2014) UKSC 15, at 63: ‘The underlying problem is that the Warsaw Convention long pre-dated equality laws which are common today. There is much to be said for the argument that it is time for the Montreal Convention to be amended to take account of the development of equality rights, whether in relation to race (as in King v American Airlines) or in relation to access for the disabled, but any amendment would be a matter for the contracting parties’. 152 See, section 4.3.3.4(2). 153 1969 Vienna Convention, Article 32. See, section 1.3.1.2(2)(ii). many jurisdictions the Travaux Préparatoires have regularly been considered as major interpretation tools.154 In the United States, Justice X’Xxxxxx held in Saks that the Travaux Préparatoires were an important tool for clarification: In interpreting a treaty it is proper, of course, to refer to the records of its drafting and negotiations. […] In part because the ‘travaux préparatoires’ of the Warsaw Convention are published and generally available to litigants, courts frequently refer to these materials to resolve ambiguities in the text.155 In Xxxx, Justice Xxxxxxx considered that the Travaux Préparatoires deserved attention when several readings of a provision were possible: But it is disingenuous to say that it is the only possible reading. Certainly it is wron...
Travaux Préparatoires. The United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law contains an extensive note on the drafting history of the General Convention,598 which has been further explained by Xxxxxx in a series of articles.599 Together with the relevant documents in the UN archives, these sources shed light on the drafting history of Section 29 of the General Convention. As will be seen, however, to the extent there is any insight into the drafters’ intention behind the term ‘private law character’, this is provided by the travaux préparatoires of the Specialized Agencies Convention. During the UN Conference on International Organization, which resulted in the signing of the UN Charter in June 1945, the possibility of a general convention on the UN’s privileges and immunities was conceived, which led to Article 105(3) of the UN Charter.600 Input for this provision had been provided, amongst others, by X.X. Xxxxx, the then legal adviser of the ILO. His advice to the drafters included: ‘Immunities and Facilities to be Accorded to General International Organisation . . . it would seem essential that the text of the Charter should embody general principles which guarantee effectively the independence of the Organisation and its agents by the grant of appropriate immunities’.601 Around the same time, the agenda of the 26th session of the International Labour Conference in April 1944 in Philadelphia included ‘as the first item the question of the future programme, policy and status of the Organisation. In taking that decision the Governing Body had in mind the desirability of the Organisation taking steps to map out the place it thought it should hold in the new world organization which would be designed after the war had been won, and also of reviewing its existing constitution and practice in the light of its twenty-five years’ experience, with a view to there being incorporated in its Constitution and practice such amendments as might be necessary to enable it to deal effectively with its future responsibilities.’602 The International Labour Office presented the Conference with proposals concerning, amongst others, the ILO’s status. However, the Conference did not have sufficient time to examine these proposals and referred them to the Committee on Constitutional Questions of the ILO’s Governing Body.603 The agenda for the Constitutional Committee’s first session, in January 1945, included: ‘the Status, immunities and other facilities to be accorded to the International Lab...
Travaux Préparatoires. In 1929, particular attention was given to the wording to be used in order to avoid the already recognized risk of potential different interpretations,65 which could lead to a lack of uniformity.66 France, for example, voiced an 63 Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx, National Airlegislations and the Warsaw Convention 10 (Springer, 1937): ‘It is, however, not sufficient to have uniformity of text but one must have certain guaran- tees that there also will be uniformity of application’.
Travaux Préparatoires. The Travaux Préparatoires of the 1929 Warsaw Convention show that the aim of uniformity was probably one of the most difficult tasks to achieve. It required each participant to negotiate and to settle on points of law that departed from their domestic law and to accept a common international rule. This mission of compromise was described by the Rapporteur as follows: Une convention n’est faite et n’existe que par des concessions mutuelles. Une convention serait absolument inutile si tous les systèmes nationaux étaient équivalents. Dès lors, le CITEJA a compris qu’en cette matière toute nouvelle les législations sont jeunes et rares, que l’on pouvait xxxx xxxxxxx des textes sans parti pris, sans vouloir faire accepter tel ou tel système juridique, mais construire une œuvre moderne, dans l’équilibre et la liberté!110 This difficult exercise was, however, guided by the will to reach uniformity, even if this entailed a departure from domestic law and customs, as recalled by the United Kingdom in these words: En ce qui concerne le Gouvernement britannique, la seule raison qu’il ait d’entrer dans cette convention est xx xxxxx d’atteindre l’uniformité. […] Le projet de con- vention est contraire, sur plusieurs points à nos xxxx et à nos coutumes, mais nous sommes décidés à faire des sacrifices pour obtenir cette uniformité de régime. 111 108 See, Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx, “L’adage lex specialis derogat generali – Réflexions générales sur sa nature, sa raison d’être et ses conditions d’application”, in Xxxxxx Xxxxx-Xxxxxxxx (eds), La mise en œuvre de la lex specialis dans le droit international contemporain 27-47 (Xxxxxx, 2017). 109 See, for the autonomy of air law in general, Xxxxx Xxxxxx de Xxxx, Introduction to Air Law 4 (10th edition, Wolters Kluwer, 2017). 110 ICAO Doc 7838, II Conférence Internationale de Droit Privé Aérien, 4-12 Octobre 1929, 111 Ibid., p. 25. See also, Ibid., p. 58: ‘L’objet de cette convention est d’assurer l’uniformité du droit et si on insère une clause de ce genre, il y aura quantité d’évasions de la convention qui se produiront’. In 1955, the same dynamic drove negotiations.112 Speaking for the Neth- erlands, Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx stated that uniformity was ‘vital’ even if ‘conflicting views have been expressed as to how the conditions of a uniform application of the rules can best be maintained’.113 The need for an autonomous dimension of the concepts and terms used therein was notably voiced by Portuguese delegation, as follows: […] sinc...
Travaux Préparatoires
