The Convention on the Law Applicable to Products Liability was concluded at The Hague on 2 October 1973, during the Twelfth Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. The English and French texts are equally authentic, in a single copy deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. It is not the same-day Convention on the International Administration of the Estates of Deceased Persons, nor the two maintenance instruments (recognition of decisions, and applicable law) also adopted at that session.

Article 1 determines the law applicable to the liability of manufacturers and of the persons listed in Article 3 for damage caused by a product, including damage from a misdescription or from a failure to give adequate notice of qualities, characteristics or method of use. The Convention does not apply to liability between the parties where the person claimed to be liable transferred the property in, or the right to use, the product to the person suffering damage. It applies irrespective of the nature of the proceedings. Article 2: product covers natural and industrial goods, raw or manufactured, movable or immovable; damage means injury to the person or to property and economic loss, but not damage to the product itself unless associated with other damage. Article 3 lists manufacturers of a finished product or of a component, producers of a natural product, suppliers, and other persons in the commercial chain including repairers and warehousemen, as well as their agents and employees.

Article 4 applies the internal law of the State of the place of injury if that State is also the habitual residence of the person directly suffering damage, the principal place of business of the person claimed to be liable, or the place where the product was acquired. Article 5, notwithstanding Article 4, applies the internal law of the habitual-residence State if that State is also the principal place of business of the person claimed to be liable or the place of acquisition. Article 6: where neither Article 4 nor Article 5 designates a law, the applicable law is the internal law of the principal place of business of the person claimed to be liable, unless the claimant bases the claim on the internal law of the State of the place of injury.

Article 7: neither the law of the place of injury nor that of habitual residence applies if the person claimed to be liable establishes that he could not reasonably have foreseen that the product, or products of the same type, would be made available in that State through commercial channels. Article 8 lists, without being a litigation handbook, what the chosen law determines: the basis and extent of liability, exemptions and division, kinds of damage, form of compensation, assignment or inheritance of the claim, persons entitled in their own right, liability of a principal or employer, the burden of proof insofar as it belongs to the law of liability, and prescription. Article 9 allows consideration of the rules of conduct and safety prevailing in the State where the product was introduced into the market. Article 10: application may be refused only where it would be manifestly incompatible with public policy.

Article 11: the preceding articles apply without reciprocity, even if the designated law is not that of a Contracting State. Articles 12 to 14 treat territorial units with their own products-liability rules and declarations of extension notified to the depositary. Article 15: the Convention does not prevail over other conventions in special fields that contain products-liability provisions. Article 16 permits only two reservations: not applying Article 8(9) on prescription, and not applying the Convention to raw agricultural products.

Article 17: open for signature by States that were Members of the Conference at the time of its Twelfth Session; instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval are deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Article 18: later accession by new Members of the Conference, Members of the United Nations or of a specialised agency, or Parties to the Statute of the International Court of Justice, after the Convention has entered into force. Article 20: it enters into force on the first day of the third calendar month after deposit of the third instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval; the same interval applies to later ratifications and accessions.

Article 21: it remains in force for five years from the first day provided in Article 20 and is then tacitly renewed, with denunciation notified to the depositary at least six months before expiry of the period. Article 22 requires the depositary to notify signatures, the dates of force, accessions, extensions, reservations and denunciations. The cover shows the Peace Palace at The Hague, seat of the Conference, not a signing table.

Sources consulted: Convention on the Law Applicable to Products Liability; official HCCH text, Convention on the Law Applicable to Products Liability (HCCH 22).