Text of Montreal Protocol – 1975 – Additional Protocol No.2

ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL No.2 AMEND THE CONVENTION FOR THE UNIFICATION OF CERTAIN RULES RELATION 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 THE GOVERNMENTS UNDERSIGNED

CONSIDERING that it is desirable 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,

HAVE AGREED as follows:

 CHAPTER I

 AMENDMENTS TO THE CONVENTION

 Article I

The Convention which the provisions of the present Chapter modify is the Warsaw Convention as amended at The Hague in 1955.

 Article II

Article 22 of the Convention shall be deleted and replaced by the following:

 “Article 22

  1. In the carriage of persons the liability of the carrier for each passenger is limited to the sum of 16 600 Special Drawing Rights. Where, in accordance with the law of the court seised of the case, damages may be awarded in the form of periodic payments, the equivalent capital value of the said payments shall not exceed this limit. Nevertheless, by special contract, the carrier and the passenger may agree to a higher limit of liability.
  2. (a) In the carriage of registered baggage and of cargo, the liability of the carrier is limited to a sum of 17 Special Drawing Rights per kilogramme, unless the passenger or consignor has made, at the time when the package was handed over to the carrier, a special declaration of interest in delivery at destination and has paid a supplementary sum if the case so requires. In that case the carrier will be liable to pay a sum not exceeding the declared sum, unless he proves that that sum is greater than the passenger’s or consignor’s actual interest in delivery at destination.

(b) In the case of loss, damage or delay of part of registered baggage or cargo, or of any object contained therein, the weight to be taken into consideration in determining the amount to which the carrier’s liability is limited shall be only the total weight of the package or packages concerned. Nevertheless, when the loss, damage or delay of a part of the registered baggage or cargo, or of an object contained therein, affects the value of other packages covered by the same baggage check or the same air waybill, the total weight of such package or packages shall also be taken into consideration in determining the limit of liability.

  1. As regards objects of which the passenger takes charge himself the liability of the carrier is limited to 332 Special Drawing Rights per passenger.
  2. The limits prescribed in this Article shall not prevent the court from awarding, in accordance with its own law, in addition, the whole or part of the court costs and of the other expenses of the litigation incurred by the plaintiff. The foregoing provision shall not apply if the amount of the damages awarded, excluding court costs and other expenses of the litigation, does not exceed the sum which the carrier has offered in writing to the plaintiff within a period of six months from the date of the occurrence causing the damage, or before the commencement of the action, if that is later.
  3. The sums mentioned in terms of the Special Drawing Right in this Article shall be deemed to refer to the Special Drawing Right as defined by the International Monetary Fund. Conversion of the sums into national currencies shall, in case of judicial proceedings, be made according to the value of such currencies in terms of the Special Drawing Right at the date of the judgment. The value of a national currency, in terms of the Special Drawing Right, of a High Contracting Party which is a Member of the International Monetary Fund, shall be calculated in accordance with the method of valuation applied by the International Monetary Fund, in effect at the date of the judgment, for its operations and transactions. The value of a national currency, in terms of the Special Drawing Right, of a High Contracting Party which is not a Member of the International Monetary Fund, shall be calculated in a manner determined by that High Contracting Party.

Nevertheless, those States which are not Members of the International Monetary Fund and whose law does not permit the application of the provisions of paragraphs 1, 2(a) and 3 of Article 22 may at the time of ratification or accession or at any time thereafter, declare that the limit of liability of the carrier in judicial proceedings in their territories is fixed at a sum of 250,000 monetary units per passenger with respect to paragraph 1 of Article 22; 250 monetary units per kilogramme with respect to paragraph 2(a) of Article 22; and 5,000 monetary units per passenger with respect to paragraph 3 of Article 22. This monetary unit corresponds to sixty-five and a half milligrammes of gold of millesimal fineness nine hundred. These sums may be converted into the national currency concerned in round figures. The conversion of these sums into national currency shall be made according to the law of the State concerned.”

 CHAPTER II

 SCOPE OF APPLICATION OF

 THE CONVENTION AS AMENDED

 Article III

The Warsaw Convention as amended at The Hague in 1955 and by this Protocol shall apply to international carriage as defined in Article 1 of the Convention, provided that the places of departure and destination referred to in that Article are situated either in the territories of two Parties to this Protocol or within the territory of a single Party to this Protocol with an agreed stopping place in the territory of another State.

 CHAPTER III

 FINAL CLAUSES

 Article IV

As between the Parties to this Protocol, the Warsaw Convention as amended at The Hague in 1955 and this Protocol shall be read and interpreted together as one single instrument and shall be known as the Warsaw Convention as amended at The Hague, 1955, and by Additional Protocol No. 2 of Montreal, 1975.

 Article V

Until the date on which this Protocol comes into force in accordance with the provisions of Article VII, it shall remain open for signature by any State.

 Article VI

  1. This Protocol shall be subject to ratification by the signatory States.
  2. Ratification of this Protocol by any State which is not a Party to the Warsaw Convention or by any State which is not a Party to the Warsaw Convention as amended at The Hague, 1955, shall have the effect of accession to the Warsaw Convention as amended at The Hague, 1955, and by Additional Protocol No. 2 of Montreal, 1975.
  3. The instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Government of the Polish People’s Republic.

 Article VII

  1. As soon as thirty signatory States have deposited their instruments of ratification of this Protocol, it shall come into force between them on the ninetieth day after the deposit of the thirtieth instrument of ratification. It shall come into force for each State ratifying thereafter on the ninetieth day after the deposit of its instrument of ratification.
  2. As soon as this Protocol comes into force it shall be registered with the United Nations by the Government of the Polish People’s Republic.

 Article VIII

  1. This Protocol, after it has come into force, shall be open for accession by any non-signatory State.
  2. Accession to this Protocol by any State which is not a Party to the Warsaw Convention or by any State which is not a Party to the Warsaw Convention as amended at The Hague, 1955, shall have the effect of accession to the Warsaw Convention as amended at The Hague, 1955, and by Additional Protocol No. 2 of Montreal, 1975.
  3. Accession shall be effected by the deposit of an instrument of accession with the Government of the Polish People’s Republic and shall take effect on the ninetieth day after the deposit.

 Article IX

  1. Any Party to this Protocol may denounce the Protocol by notification addressed to the Government of the Polish People’s Republic.
  2. Denunciation shall take effect six months after the date of receipt by the Government of the Polish People’s Republic of the notification of denunciation.
  3. As between the Parties to this Protocol, denunciation by any of them of the Warsaw Convention in accordance with Article 39 thereof or of the Hague Protocol in accordance with Article XXIV thereof shall not be construed in any way as a denunciation of the Warsaw Convention as amended at The Hague, 1955, and by Additional Protocol No. 2 of Montreal, 1975.

 Article X

No reservation may be made to this Protocol except that a State may at any time declare by a notification addressed to the Government of the Polish People’s Republic that the Convention as amended by this Protocol shall not apply to the carriage of persons, cargo and baggage for its military authorities on aircraft, registered in that State, the whole capacity of which has been reserved by or on behalf of such authorities.

 Article XI

The Government of the Polish People’s Republic shall promptly inform all States Parties to the Warsaw Convention or to that Convention as amended, all signatory or acceding States to the present Protocol, as well as the International Civil Aviation Organization, of the date of each signature, the date of deposit of each instrument of ratification or accession, the date of coming into force of this Protocol, and other relevant information.

 Article XII

As between the Parties to this Protocol which are also Parties to the Convention, Supplementary to the Warsaw Convention, for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air Performed by a Person Other than the Contracting Carrier, signed at Guadalajara on 18 September 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the “Guadalajara Convention”) any reference to the “Warsaw Convention” contained in the Guadalajara Convention shall include reference to the Warsaw Convention as amended at The Hague, 1955, and by Additional Protocol No. 2 of Montreal, 1975, in cases where the carriage under the agreement referred to in Article 1, paragraph (b) of the Guadalajara Convention is governed by this Protocol.

 Article XIII

This Protocol shall remain open for signature until 1 January 1976 at the Headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization and thereafter until it comes into force in accordance with Article VII at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Polish People’s Republic. The International Civil Aviation Organization shall promptly inform the Government of the Polish People’s Republic of any signature and the date thereof during the time that the Protocol shall be open for signature at the Headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned Plenipotentiaries, having been duly authorized, have signed this Protocol.

DONE at Montreal on the twenty-fifth day of the month of September of the year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy-five in four authentic texts in the English, French, Russian and Spanish languages. In the case of any inconsistency, the text in the French language, in which language the Warsaw Convention of 12 October 1929 was drawn up, shall prevail.