The apparent preoccupation of this journal with judicial pronouncements in the United States on Warsaw Convention issues and the air carrier’s limit of liability in particular—is merely a reflection of the startling pace at which courts are grasping opportunities to enter the debate over the status of the treaty. If it is an historical anachronism are the courts entitled to override its intent and effect by impugning the validity of its gold clause or should abandonment or amendment be left to the legislature?

While the U.S. may be but one nation (even if not but a single jurisdiction) changes in its attitude towards the treaty governing international carriage by air cannot be ignored by others. A significant proportion of tickets sold for international carriage involve journeys to, from, or via the U.S. But one U.S. orginating passenger on an aircraft suffering an accident on a flight between two points in the Middle East can, absent limitation and by reference to U.S. levels of compensatory damages, provoke a claim which exceeds the total payable to the remainder of the victims of the catastrophe combined.

Similarly, if international momentum (or its lack) is to amend (or leave ossified) the Warsaw Convention, progress will only be made in the light of the lead which the U.S. Government affords to the rest of the world. The inertia which bureaucracy can generate is yet more powerful today than in 1929 when the instrument was adopted and no widespread intergovernmental move to implement amendments to the treaty will occur which does not command the persuasive support of the government of the largest community of aircraft builders and users.

Against this background readers will recall that in the February issue of LMCLQ ([1983] 1 LMCLQ 111 et seq.) consideration was given, inter alia, to the decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Franklin Mint v. TWA (525 F.Supp. 1288 reversed No. 82–7012) that the Convention limit of liability—in respect of cargo—was, within its circuit jurisdiction, prospectively unenforceable 60 days from final resolution of the action.