The Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, known as the Montreal Convention, was done at Montreal on 28 May 1999, at the International Conference on Air Law of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish texts being equally authentic. Depositary: ICAO. It is not the Warsaw Convention of 12 October 1929, which it modernizes and prevails over between parties, not the Hague Protocol of 1955, and not Regulation (EC) 1107/2006 on passengers with reduced mobility.

The preamble recognizes Warsaw's contribution, the need to protect the interests of consumers and for equitable compensation based on restitution, and the objectives of the Chicago Convention of 1944. Article 1: it applies to international carriage of persons, baggage or cargo for reward, and equally to gratuitous carriage by an air transport undertaking. Article 2: carriage performed by the State, on the same conditions; postal items remain, with one exception, outside the convention.

Chapter II, at framework level, provides a document of carriage for passengers, a baggage identification tag and, for cargo, an air waybill or an equivalent record; non-compliance with the formalities does not affect the contract. A waybill-filling guide is not set out here. Chapter III: the carrier's liability for death or bodily injury, for baggage and cargo, and for delay. Article 21: for damages not exceeding one hundred thousand special drawing rights for each passenger, the carrier shall not be able to exclude or limit its liability; above that threshold it may exonerate itself if it proves the absence of its own fault or the sole fault of a third party.

Article 22, in the original text: four thousand one hundred and fifty SDRs for delay of persons, one thousand SDRs per passenger for baggage and seventeen SDRs per kilogramme for cargo, with the possibility of a special declaration of interest. Article 24: the depositary reviews the limits at five-year intervals, by reference to inflation. Article 28: advance payments in the case of death or injury, if required by national law. Article 50: adequate insurance. A compensation, baggage-claim or SDR-conversion handbook is not transcribed.

Article 53: open for signature by states participating in the conference, then by all states and by regional economic integration organisations, at ICAO headquarters, until entry into force; ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, deposited with ICAO. It enters into force on the sixtieth day following the thirtieth instrument, an instrument of a regional organisation not being counted. It entered into force on 4 November 2003. Article 54: denunciation effective after one hundred and eighty days. Article 55: it prevails over the Warsaw-system instruments between parties. Article 57: reservations only for non-commercial state carriage and for carriage reserved for military authorities.

Cover: ICAO headquarters in Montreal, place of the conference and of the original; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Montreal Convention; Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (Montreal, IATA reproduction of the official text).