Passenger's mental injury as a basis of liability of a carrier in the international air law

• Main Author: Radumilo Irena M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Law 2017-01-01
• Series: Zbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu
• Subjects: air carrier; passenger; metal injury; damage (injury)
• Online Access: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0550-2179/2017/0550-21791702571R.pdf
• ISSN: 0550-2179; 2406-1255

Despite the efforts of the international community to create uniform rules on the liability of an air carrier in a case of passenger injuries during a flight or in connection with a flight, certain concerns remain unresolved. The Montreal Convention of 1999, although the most important contemporary international document which regulates the issue of compensation in a case of a passenger's injury during a flight, does not go beyond the controversial issue of the liability of an air carrier for the mental injury that the passenger has suffered. As the provision of the Convention which deals with the liability of an air carrier, has had a flexible interpretation in the last few decades, the word of a judge in each individual case is still the most adequate answer to this issue. The overview of the rich court practice in the text below will explain, above all, the distinction in the perception of mental and physical injuries by the court, and point out the problems and inconsistencies that the court encounters when interpreting the text of the Convention. De lege ferenda, the explicit inclusion of a passenger's mental injury in the basis of air carrier's liability in the text of the Convention, would surely lead to greater legal certainty, as well as a decline in the number of litigation.