Warsaw Convention

Convention for the Unification of certain rules relating to international carriage by air

Signed in Warsaw on 12 October 1929 - Warsaw Convention 1929

Effective from 13 February 1933
Parties in total of 152
Depositary Government of Poland
Language is French

The Warsaw Convention is an international convention which regulates liability for international carriage of:
persons, luggage or goods performed by aircraft for reward.

History

Originally signed in 1929 in Warsaw, it was amended in 1955 at The Hague and in 1971 in Guatemala City.
United States courts have held that, at least for some purposes, the Warsaw Convention is a different instrument from the
Warsaw Convention as Amended by the Hague Protocol.

There are 5 chapters of the document:

    Chapter I - Definitions
    Chapter II - Documents of Carriage; Luggage and Passenger Ticket
    Chapter III - Liability of the Carrier
    Chapter IV - Provisions Relating to Combined Carriage
    Chapter V - General and Final Provisions

The Convention was written originally in French and the original of ratification shall be deposited in the archives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Poland.

In particular, the Warsaw Convention:

Mandates carriers to issue passenger tickets;
Requires carriers to issue baggage checks for checked luggage;
Creates a limitation period of 2 years within which a claim must be brought (Article 29); and limits a carrier's liability to at most:

250,000 Francs or 16,600 special drawing rights (SDR) for personal injury;
17 SDR per kilogram for checked luggage and cargo, or $20 USD per kilogram for non-signatories of the amended Montreal Convention.
5,000 Francs or 332 SDR for the hand luggage of a traveller.

The sums limiting liability were originally given in gold francs (defined in terms of a particular quantity of gold by article 22 paragraph 5 of the convention).


These sums were amended by the Montreal Additional Protocol No. 2 to substitute an expression given in terms of SDR's.
These sums are valid in the absence of a differing agreement (on a higher sum) with the carrier.

Agreements on lower sums are null and void.

A court may also award a claiming party's costs, unless the carrier made an offer within 6 months of the loss
(or at least 6 months before the beginning of any legal proceedings) which the claiming party has failed to beat. The Warsaw Convention provides that a plaintiff can file a lawsuit at his discretion in one of the following forums:

1- the carrier's principal place of business
2- the domicile of the carrier
3- the carrier's place of business through which the contract was made
4- the place of the destination The Montreal Convention, signed in 1999, replaced the Warsaw Convention system.

Source: Wikipedia