226
Opinion of the Court
embrace a reading that would produce the mélange of French and domestic law proposed by petitioners.
Because a treaty ratified by the United States is not only the law of this land, see U. S. Const., Art. II, § 2, but also an agreement among sovereign powers, we have traditionally considered as aids to its interpretation the negotiating and drafting history (travaux préparatoires) and the postratification understanding of the contracting parties. Both of these sources confirm that the compensable injury is to be determined by domestic law. In the drafting history, the only statements we know of that directly discuss the point were made by the Comité International Technique d'Experts Juridiques Aériens (CITEJA), which did the preparatory work for the two Conferences (1925 in Paris, 1929 in Warsaw) that produced the Warsaw Convention. In its report of May 15, 1928, the Committee stated:
"It was asked whether it would not be possible, in this respect, to determine the category of damages subject to reparations.
"Although this question seemed very interesting, it was not possible to find a satisfactory solution before knowing exactly the legislation of the various countries. It was understood that the question would be studied later on, when the issue of knowing which are the persons, who according to the various national laws, have the right to take action against the carrier, will have been elucidated." Report of the Third Session of CITEJA by Henry de Vos, reprinted in International Technical Committee of Legal Experts on Air Questions 106 (May 1928).
To the same effect is the following passage from the CITEJA Report accompanying the 1929 draft:
"The question was asked of knowing if one could determine who the persons upon whom the action devolves in the case of death are, and what are the damages sub-
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