A Fragmented Legal Regime of Air Carrier Liability in International Transportation of Passengers

Download or read book A Fragmented Legal Regime of Air Carrier Liability in International Transportation of Passengers written by Aleksandra Puscinska and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The proliferation of regional and national consumer protection regimes is a direct result of the continuously growing demand for passenger air travel and an increasing number of flight disruptions. The existing legal framework of rules on air carrier liability in international transportation of passengers explicitly governs 'damage occasioned by delay', but it is unclear whether it also applies to flight cancellations and denied boarding. While a certain degree of fragmentation is an inherent characteristic of a pluralist legal system, a plethora of applicable rules may result in overlapping provisions and conflicting obligations. This Thesis first discusses the issue of fragmentation of rules on delay, cancellation, and denied boarding in the context of private international air law conventions unifying certain rules applicable to international carriage by air, namely the constitutive instruments of the Warsaw System, and the 1999 Montreal Convention. It then examines a regional regime for air passenger protection established by the European Union, and relevant national rules adopted in the United States. The dissertation evaluates if, and to what extent, the objective of complementing the existing international conventional law has been achieved, and highlights the areas of regulatory overlap, duplication, or conflict between the applicable laws. Finally, the paper conducts a critical assessment of the International Civil Aviation Organisation's role in fostering common regulatory approaches to consumer protection in air transport. The analysis of the research presented in this paper suggests that, at the present time, there is no need for a new convention on air passenger rights. Instead, the global community should encourage States to ratify the Montreal Convention of 1999 and strive for a regulatory convergence in developing compatible regional and national systems, based on common standards and preserving an equitable balance of interests, in keeping with the spirit of the 1999 Montreal Convention, as expressed in its preamble." --