1929 Warsaw Convention
The first treaty unifying the liability of international air carriers, based on presumed fault and compensation caps, progressively replaced by the 1999 Montreal Convention.
The Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air, signed in Warsaw in 1929, gave the young air transport industry a liability regime common to all state parties. The carrier is presumed liable for damage suffered by passengers, baggage and cargo, but may escape liability by proving it took all necessary measures, and its liability is capped, except for willful misconduct. These caps, expressed in Poincaré gold francs, were low from the outset and were raised by successive protocols, including the Hague Protocol of 1955, forming a complex whole known as the Warsaw system. The text also requires transport documents, a ticket and an air waybill, whose absence deprived the carrier of limitation. The 1999 Montreal Convention replaced it between states that ratified it, but it still applies to flights between states that are parties only to the Warsaw system.
Signed on October 12, 1929, the convention capped compensation per passenger at 125,000 Poincaré francs, an amount the 1955 Hague Protocol doubled to 250,000 francs, still far below the awards made by US courts.
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