On 28 April 2009 the European Community deposited an instrument of accession to the Cape Town Convention. To understand the implications thereof, one needs to understand the scope of the powers conferred upon the Community to conclude international agreements. In this case accession by the Community implies that the Member States are bound by the Cape Town Convention to the extent the provisions thereof fall within Community competence. The Community declaration, lodged in conjunction with the accession instrument, indicates that Member States have transferred competence to the Community with respect to matters affecting the Brussels I–Regulation, the Insolvency Regulation and the Rome I–Regulation. In practice it will, however, still be difficult to determine which provisions of the Convention fall within Community competence. The Community’s accession to the Cape Town Convention is perhaps mainly to be seen as paving the way for individual Member States to ratify the Convention.
Air and Space Law