Warsaw Convention: The 1971 Protocol of Guatemala City

Abstract

The Warsaw Convention (1929) was amended for the first time by the Protocol signed at The Hague on September 28, 1955.1 The latter increased the limit of liability of international air carriers by 100 percent to $16,600 (250,000 francs Poincare), modified the articles relating to the notice to be inserted in the ticket and the baggage check, and redefined the acts of willful misconduct which prevent the carrier from invoking the limitation of liability. The U.S. signed The Hague Protocol, which came into force on August 2, 1963, but never ratified it because it considered the new liability limit too low.2 Instead, the U.S. on November 15, 1966 gave notice of denunciation3 of the Warsaw Convention, effective from May 15, 1966. This, in turn, led to the so-called Montreal Agreement and later to the famous Order of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board implementing an interim whereby passengers on participating carriers going to, from, or stopping in, the U.S. are subject to a limit of liability of $58,000 (or $75,000 inclusive of legal fees) regardless of fault on the part of the air carrier. This arrangement was generally assumed to be an emergency measure, pending formal amendment of the Warsaw Convention. The U.S. agreed to withdraw their denunciation of the convention, but pressed for an even higher liability limit in case of death or personal injury, first of $100,000 and finally in the order of $200,000 to $300,000. After a series of unsuccessful meetings held under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization,5 the Legal Committee of ICAO at its session in 1970 produced draft amendments which became the basis for the Diplomatic Conference held at Guatemala City March 3-17, 1971.