GN v ZU.
Date: 2019-12-19
29


As a preliminary point, it should be noted that, as regards the liability of air carriers for the carriage of passengers and their baggage by air in the territory of the European Union, Regulation No 2027/97, applicable in the case in the main proceedings, implements the relevant provisions of the Montreal Convention. It is apparent, in particular, from Article 3(1) of that regulation that the liability of European Union air carriers in respect of passengers and their baggage is to be governed by all provisions of the Montreal Convention relevant to such liability (see, to that effect, judgment of 6 May 2010, Walz, C‑63/09, EU:C:2010:251, paragraph 18).
30


It must be stated that the Montreal Convention, which entered into force, so far as the European Union is concerned, on 28 June 2004, has, as from that date, been an integral part of the European Union legal order and, accordingly, the Court has jurisdiction to give a preliminary ruling concerning its interpretation (judgment of 12 April 2018, Finnair, C‑258/16, EU:C:2018:252, paragraphs 19 and 20 and the case-law cited).
31


In that regard, Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 23 May 1969 (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 1155, p. 331), which codifies general international law binding on the European Union, states that a treaty must be interpreted in good faith in accordance with the ordinary meaning to be given to its terms in their context and in the light of its object and purpose (judgment of 12 April 2018, Finnair, C‑258/16, EU:C:2018:252, paragraph 21 and the case-law cited).
32


Furthermore, the Court has already stated that the concepts contained in the Montreal Convention must be interpreted uniformly and autonomously, so that, when interpreting these concepts for a preliminary ruling, it must take into account not the various meanings that may have been given to them in the internal laws of the Member States of the European Union, but rules of interpretation of general international law, which are binding on it (judgment of 7 November 2019, Guaitoli and Others, C‑213/18, EU:C:2019:927, paragraph 47).
36


Furthermore, in accordance with the third paragraph of the preamble to the Montreal Convention, the States Parties, recognising ‘the importance of ensuring protection of the interests of consumers in international carriage by air and the need for equitable compensation based on the principle of restitution’, decided to lay down a system of strict liability for air carriers. A system of that kind implies, however, as is apparent from the fifth paragraph of the preamble to the Montreal Convention, that an ‘equitable balance of interests’ be maintained, in particular the interests of air carriers and of passengers (see, to that effect, judgments of 6 May 2010, Walz, C‑63/09, EU:C:2010:251, paragraphs 31 and 33, and of 22 November 2012, Espada Sánchez and Others, C‑410/11, EU:C:2012:747, paragraphs 29 and 30).
40


Those limits enable passengers to be compensated easily and swiftly, yet without imposing a very heavy compensation burden on air carriers, which would be difficult to determine and to calculate, and would be liable to undermine, and even paralyse, the economic activity of those carriers (see, to that effect, judgments of 6 May 2010, Walz, C‑63/09, EU:C:2010:251, paragraphs 34 to 36, and of 22 November 2012, Espada Sánchez and Others, C‑410/11, EU:C:2012:747, paragraph 30).