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Syllabus
which led to bodily injury. The court found support in the drafting history of the Convention, which it construed to indicate that national law was intended to provide the passenger's remedy where the Convention did not expressly apply. In rejecting the argument that allowance of state-law claims when the Convention does not permit recovery would contravene the treaty's goal of uniformity, the Second Circuit read Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines Co., 516 U. S. 217, to instruct specifically that the Convention expresses no compelling interest in uniformity that would warrant supplanting an otherwise applicable body of law.
Held: The Warsaw Convention precludes a passenger from maintaining an action for personal injury damages under local law when her claim does not satisfy the conditions for liability under the Convention. Pp. 166-176.
(a) The Court's inquiry begins with Article 24, which provides that "cases covered by article 17"—in the governing French text, "les cas prévus à l'article 17"—may only be brought subject to the Convention's conditions and limits. The specific words of a treaty must be given a meaning consistent with the contracting parties' shared expectations. Air France v. Saks, 470 U. S. 392, 399. Moreover, the Court has traditionally considered as aids to a treaty's interpretation its negotiating and drafting history (travaux préparatoires) and the postratification understanding of the contracting parties. Zicherman, 516 U. S., at 226. El Al and the United States, as amicus curiae, urge that the Article 24 words, "les cas prévus à l'article 17," refer generically to all personal injury cases stemming from occurrences on board an aircraft or in embarking or disembarking, and serve to distinguish that class of cases (Article 17 cases) from cases which Articles 18 (baggage claims) and 19 (delay claims) address. So read, Article 24 precludes a passenger from asserting any air transit personal injury claims under local law, including claims that fail to satisfy Article 17's liability conditions, notably, because the injury did not result from an "accident," see Saks, 470 U. S., at 405, or because the "accident" did not result in physical injury or physical manifestation of injury, see Floyd, 499 U. S., at 552. The reasonable view of the Executive Branch concerning the meaning of an international treaty ordinarily merits respect, see Sumitomo Shoji America, Inc. v. Avagliano, 457 U. S. 176, 184-185, and in this case is most faithful to the Convention's text, purpose, and overall structure. Pp. 166-169.
(b) Recourse to local law would undermine the uniform regulation of international air carrier liability that the Convention was designed to foster. See, e. g., Floyd, 499 U. S., at 552. The Convention's signa-
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