Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
DOOR-TO-DOOR APPLICATION OF INTERNATIONAL AIR LAW CONVENTIONS: COMMERCIALLY CONVENIENT, BUT DOCTRINALLY DUBIOUS
George Leloudas*
This article examines the multimodal aspects of international air law Conventions concerning carriage of goods. It suggests that their unimodal philosophy and text, albeit nominally unimodal, have been used by the judiciary to create “air plus” liability regimes, to the eminent satisfaction of both air carriers and freight forwarders. In essence, unimodal Conventions have quietly morphed into multimodal ones without much fanfare, and this development continues. In that respect, international air law Conventions are no longer the odd ones out in multimodal transport. Despite their marginalisation in multimodal discussions, they have been adapted to provide seamless “door-to-door” cover, and in the process have done enough to emasculate the existing domestic and international liability systems for road transport.
I. INTRODUCTION
International carriage of goods by air occupies a peripheral role in the literature and practice of (unimodal and multimodal) transport law. Aviation lawyers snub it for the lucrative practice of passengers’ carriage; drafters of air law Conventions habitually put passengers in the front seat of any discussions. Non-aviation lawyers consider the Montreal Protocol No 41 and the Montreal Convention 19992 as the enfants terribles of transport law. Their high limits of liability, despite being unbreakable, and the strict channelling of risks to the air carrier are considered innovations that threaten to unsettle the much more carrier-friendly maritime Conventions.3
Inevitably, the drafting philosophy of the Montreal Protocol No 4 and the Montreal Convention 1999 have hindered consensus in regulating multimodal transport, since the unusual
* Senior Lecturer in Law, Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, Swansea University.
1. Additional Protocol No 4 to Amend the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage By Air Signed At Warsaw on 12 October 1929 as Amended By the Protocol Done at the Hague on 28 September 1955, Signed at Montreal on 25 September 1975.
2. Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air Signed at Montreal on 28 May 1999.
3. See the comments of the Delegate of Norway in International Civil Aviation Organization (“ICAO”), International Conference on Air Law at Montreal, Vol.2—Documents (Doc 9154-LC/174-2, 3 to 25 September 1975), 107.
Application of international air law Conventions
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