The victims on the ground after an air disaster—the crash of a Boeing 747 in the United States, causing extensive damages on the surface—would have recovered, on Jan. 30, 1979, $29,987,100, but one day later, Jan. 31, 1979, only $29,950,752, i.e. $36,348 less. Of course, in reality, this air disaster never occurred, and let us hope that it never will. But should the U.S. adopt the Montreal Protocol 1978, to amend the Rome Convention 1952, the above-mentioned figures would be applicable—merely because the value of the Special Drawing Right (SDR) happened to be $00.00156 less on Jan. 31 than on Jan. 30.

On Sept. 25, 1975, four Protocols were signed at the Diplomatic Conference on Air Law in Montreal.1 All of them refer to, and amend, the Warsaw Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air, or Protocols subsequently adopted.2 They would probably have received much less attention were it not for the fact that they mark another step in the development of international private law, and influence drafters of other international transportation conventions. For the first time in the history of private law conventions, a new Unit of Account— Special Drawing Right—was used to express the maximum liability of an air carrier. In November, 1976, the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) held an International Conference on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims, and drew up a Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims3 and another three Protocols, with similar changes.4 In 1978 the SDR was accepted by the United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea,5 and by Montreal Protocol 1978, to amend the Convention on Damage Caused by Foreign Aircraft to Third Parties on the Surface 1952.

Until 1975, the gold unit of account was used in all international transportation conventions to determine the carrier’s liability: firstly by the Germinal franc—with the