The article discusses a legal regime of air passengers’ rights in the European Union in light of exclusivity of the Montreal Convention of 1999. In particular, an analysis of Regulation No 216/2004 and associated case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is discussed since it provides the only real illustration so far of how an international transport convention is applied and interpreted in the EU legal framework. The analysis of CJEU case law will be complemented by cases decided by the courts in common law jurisdictions, in particular, judgments emanating from the highest courts in the UK, US and Canada. The interplay between the international and EU legal orders has been a subject of rigorous academic debate since the early days of the European Communities and is of increasing relevance at present. In the context of this article, such interaction is critically examined from the standpoint that both regimes should co-exist in harmony and complement each other, and that the EU should contribute to international unification, rather than prevent Member States from effectively participating in the development of international conventions.
Air and Space Law