Over the past five decades, product liability law in the US and EU has evolved into a sustainable system of recoveries for injured claimants, mainly for its incorporated strict liability concept, providing for the consumer benefits. This article discusses product liability regimes in the US and EU, where the two main aircraft manufacturers are based.
In light of the development of product liability law in aviation, the author analyses the relation between the two sets of law i.e. the product liability regimes of the jurisdictions mentioned and the Montreal Convention, as the exclusivity principle laid down in this Convention sheds a different light on this relationship. In examining the above subject, one can see that aviation product liability regimes may also concern the position of air carriers under the Montreal Convention, 1999. Damages which are recoverable from airlines under the Montreal Convention may be different from, and may be legally differentiated from those which are available under product liability regimes. Hence, this article signals a tendency in EU States, including but not limited to civil law jurisdictions, pursuant to which claimants try to rely on the latter regime notwithstanding the exclusivity principle laid down in the Montreal Convention.
Air and Space Law