1. INTERNATIONAL AIR LAW CONFERENCE 85 ANNIVERSARY OF WARSAW CONVENTION 24 OCTOBER 2014

2. WARSAW CONVENTION (Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air) 1925At the First International Conference on Air Law (Paris) a Committee on International Technique of Air Juridic Experts (the so called CITEJA) made up by technical legal experts was created to develop a first draft of the Convention. 1929The draft of the Convention was presented and approved at the Second International Conference on Private Air Law held in Warsaw (Warsaw Conference). 1932Implementation in Italy of the Warsaw Convention (Law no. 841). 1942Italian Navigation Law Code was approved 1962Implementation in Italy of the 1955 Hague Protocol (Law no. 1832) which, inter alia, amended the Warsaw Convention.

3. POSITIVE ASPECTS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION IN ITALY Before Warsaw Convention implementation, transport by air was governed by Law no. 2207/1923, which provided the first set of rules on air carrier’s liability and insurance undertakings. The Warsaw Convention:  at an International level successfully provided for common rules applying to aviation, representing one of the most important instruments of private international law, which is commonly named the Warsaw System (inclusive of several amending protocols, supplementary instruments and regulations).  at a National level created a comprehensive legal framework and gave impulse to a new aviation legislation. In 1942 the Italian Navigation Law Code was approved, implementing the Warsaw Convention on air carrier’s liability for the domestic air transport

4. Air carrier’s Liability Article 22 of the Convention provides for a limitation to the air carrier’s liability, for each passenger, in case of injury or death (125.000 francs, replaced by 250.000 francs following the Hague Protocol). In 1985 the Italian Constitutional Court has cancelled the limitation of liability provided by art. 22 considering the same to be in violation of fundamental rights of the person as set out by Article 2 of the Italian Constitution. The Constitutional Court ruling led to uncertainty on the limitation applicable to claims for damages in the event of the death, wounding or injury of a passenger.  The objection made by the Court was not overcome by the following Protocols and implementations which tried to increase the liability cap.  Moreover, the new limit became soon out of date as the regulation did not provide for an automatic update neither provided for a review from time to time. APPLICATION: MAIN ISSUES

5. 1999 Montreal Convention Montreal Convention introduced the “two-tier system”, that is a double level of responsibility of the carrier: ―strict liability (up to 100.000 SDR, currently 113,100 SDR), carriers are unable to exclude or limit their liability; ―above that threshold, carriers may avoid liability by proving that the accident which caused the injury or death was not due to their negligence or was attributable to the negligence of a third party. Moreover, Montreal Convention provided for a five-year intervals’ review of the limit. The “two-tier system” dealt with the constitutional objections on the carrier’s limitation of liability that had been pointed out by some ratifying states’ “Constitutional Courts”. APPLICATION: MAIN ISSUES

6. Jurisdiction. Article 28 of the Warsaw Convention (setting out the four alternative criteria for jurisdiction) has been criticized, expecially by the U.S. Courts. In the Italian experience uncertainty arose in particular about the scope of art. 28, i.e. whether the same was regarding only jurisdiction among contracting States or also the internal jurisdiction within each contracting State. Certain rulings (mostly by Judges of Peace) applied Article 28 of the Warsaw Convention also in relation to the jurisdiction territorial criteria (competence), therefore, derogating to the Italian Civil Procedure Law. The Italian Supreme Court has always been consistent with the international law, ruling that Article 28 only governs conflicts of jurisdiction among the Contracting States. APPLICATION: MAIN ISSUES

7. Warsaw Convention represents the first comprehensive legal framework governing aviation at international level, playing an essential role in supporting the development of the sector and establishing a set of principles, most of which are still effective and constitute the basis of the modern aviation law. CONCLUSION

8. Laura Pierallini, Partner at Studio Pierallini Professor at LUISS University of Rome Thank you!