Taiwan’s regulations concerning air carriers’ liability for damages, as laid down in the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法), are seriously out of line with the two major international aviation conventions — the 1929 Warsaw Convention, with its associated protocols and amendments, and the 1999 Montreal Convention. This disharmony is a serious impediment to improving the nation’s air-transport safety.
The act does not outline standards for air passenger carriers’ liability for damages or destruction or loss of passengers’ carry-on and consigned baggage, nor does it include regulations about cargo carriers’ liability. Instead, one must turn to the regulations of the Civil Code concerning passenger and freight transport.
The Regulations of Compensation For Damage Caused to Air Passengers and Freight (航空客貨損害賠償辦法), which were drawn up in accordance with the Civil Aviation Act, are based on the principle of full compensation for actual damages in relation to the extent of carriers’ liability for injury and death. The regulations set the minimum compensation for the death of each passenger at NT$3 million (US$99,967) and the minimum compensation for severe injury at NT$1.5 million. However, if damage does not cause death or severe injury, limited compensation applies and the maximum compensation payable is set at NT$1.5 million.
This sum is much lower than the maximum of 100,000 special drawing rights (about US$153,500) that is specified in the regulations of the two global conventions.
More importantly, under the two conventions, when a carrier’s negligence leads to the death or injury of one or more passengers, the carrier cannot claim for limited liability, while under the Civil Aviation Act, a carrier only loses the right to claim limited liability if its culpability reaches the level of gross negligence.
Passenger transport is different from cargo transport in that it involves human lives. The legal system must therefore set a high standard for passenger transport, and this is a common standpoint of all international aviation conventions.
Hopefully, the Ministry of Transport will consider bringing Taiwan’s aviation laws in line with international norms. As well as bringing about improvements in aviation safety
This would also be in line with key economic development policies.
Jao Juei-cheng is an associate professor at National Taiwan Ocean University’s Institute of the Law of the Sea and is secretary-general of the Taiwan Maritime Law Association.
Translated by Julian Clegg
The US intelligence community’s annual threat assessment for this year certainly cannot be faulted for having a narrow focus or Pollyanna perspective. From a rising China, Russian aggression and Iran’s nuclear ambitions, to climate change, future pandemics and the growing reach of international organized crime, US intelligence analysis is as comprehensive as it is worrying. Inaugurated two decades ago as a gesture of transparency and to inform the public and the US Congress, the annual threat assessment offers the intelligence agencies’ top-line conclusions about the country’s leading national-security threats — although always in ways that do not compromise “sources and methods.”
Let’s begin with the bottom line. The sad truth of the matter is that Beijing has trampled on its solemn pledge to grant Hong Kong a great deal of autonomy for at least fifty years. In so doing, the PRC ignored a promise Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) made to both Great Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the wider world back in the early 1980s. This was at a time when Beijing, under Deng and his successors, appeared to be seeking an equitable accommodation with the West. I remain puzzled by China’s recent policy shift. Was it because Hong Kong was perceived
The recent meeting in New Delhi between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov — the first such high-level interaction since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — suggests that diplomacy might no longer be a dirty word. The 10 minute meeting on the sidelines of the G20 gathering occurred after US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan reportedly urged Ukraine to show Russia that it is open to negotiating an end to the war. Together, these developments offer a glimmer of hope that a ceasefire is within the realm of the possible. The
French police have confirmed that China’s overseas “police service stations” were behind cyberattacks against a Taiwanese Mandarin Learning Center in the European nation. This is another example of Beijing bullying Taiwanese organizations, as well as a show of contempt for other countries’ sovereignty and for international laws and norms. L’Encrier Chinois, a Chinese-language school that opened in 2005 in Paris, became the second Taiwanese Mandarin Learning Center in France in 2021. The school was targeted by at least three cyberattacks last year, which were reported to French police, who discovered that the attacks originated from China’s overseas police stations. Overseas