The purpose of the Bill is to give effect to a protocol which amends the convention known as the Warsaw Convention; the protocol was adopted at The Hague in September, 1955. The Warsaw Convention, the full title of which is "The Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air", is set out in the First Schedule to the Air Navigation and Transport Act, 1936.
The convention clarifies the circumstances in which carriers are liable, and lays down maximum limits of the liability of carriers, in relation to passengers, baggage and cargo carried on their aircraft. It also prescribes the manner in which such documents of carriage as the passenger ticket, the baggage ticket and the air waybill, should be completed. Its purpose is to provide a standardised code of legislation for application internationally. Without such an internationally accepted code of legislation it would be difficult to determine the liability of air carriers in respect of persons killed or suffering bodily injury, or loss of, or damage to, goods or baggage. The convention has fulfilled for the past 25 years the need for such a standardised code and international aviation has benefited considerably from it.
Experience has shown that the convention is, in some respects, in need of revision. For example, the limit of the carriers' liability for the carriage of passengers, as laid down in the convention, is fixed at 125,000 gold francs. This amounts to about £3,000 in our currency. The Hague Protocol raises this limit to 250,000 gold francs or about £6,000. The provisions of the convention relating to the completion of the various documents of carriage have also given rise to difficulty because carriers have from time to time found it difficult to comply fully with those requirements. Those requirements are simplified by the protocol. Finally, certain expressions in the convention have been held to be ambiguous and their meaning has been clarified.
The question of amendment of the convention has been under consideration for a number of years. The International Civil Aviation Organisation convened an international conference at The Hague in September, 1955, for the purpose of considering the convention. Forty-four countries, including Ireland, were represented at the conference, which adopted the protocol amending the Warsaw Convention. The protocol was signed at the conclusion of the conference on behalf of 26 States including Ireland, and is set out in the Schedule to the present Bill.
It is clear that a maximum of £6,000 compensation is not fully in accord with present conditions and, no doubt, a higher limit might have been fixed. While this might be conceded, account must be taken of the fact that liability is almost automatic up to that amount and that if negligence on the part of the carrier is proven, the common law applies and liability is unlimited. The Hague Conference considered higher limits and we would have supported them if they had been proposed but it was, in effect, necessary to compromise between the views of States which sought high limits and those which sought very low limits.
The protocol is subject to ratification by the signatory States. Up to the present, nine States have ratified it and a number of other States are proceeding with its ratification. It will not come into force until 90 days after it is ratified by 30 States. Accordingly, provision is made in the present Bill for the making of an Order by the Government bringing into operation the provisions of the protocol. The intention is that that Order will not be made until the protocol is in force, i.e., until after 30 States have ratified it. When that stage has been reached, the convention as amended by the protocol will operate in relation to international carriage by air between States which have ratified the protocol. Until then the Warsaw Convention, as set out in the 1936 Act and as amended by Part II of this Bill, will continue to have effect and even after the protocol has come into force the convention itself will continue to operate in relation to those States which although they have ratified the convention have not ratified the protocol.
It will be noted that under the terms of the protocol the only reservation which a State is permitted to make to the protocol relates to carriage by air for its military authorities in certain specified circumstances. Under that article, a State may at any time formally declare that the convention as amended by the protocol, shall not apply to such carriage. It is not intended, at present at any rate, that Ireland should make any reservation.
The Hague Protocol when it comes into force will, I believe, be of benefit to all concerned in the business of air carriage. It represents an improvement on the original convention and it is in the public interest that legal effect should be given to it here. That is what this Bill proposes to do.
