Cite as: 525 U. S. 155 (1999)
Stevens, J., dissenting
Justice Stevens, dissenting.
My disagreement with the Court's holding today has limited practical significance, not just because the issue has been conclusively determined for future cases by the recent amendment to the Warsaw Convention, see ante, at 160, 174- 175, but also because it affects only a narrow category of past cases. The decision is nevertheless significant because, in the end, it rests on the novel premise that preemption analysis should be applied differently to treaties than to other kinds of federal law, see ante, at 175. Because I disagree with that premise, I shall briefly explain why I believe the Court has erred.
I agree with the Court that the drafters of the Convention intended that the treaty largely supplant local law. Article 24 preempts local law in three major categories: (1) personal injury claims arising out of an accident; 1 (2) claims for lost or damaged baggage; and (3) damage occasioned by transportation delays.2 Those categories surely comprise the
1 As we have already held, Article 17 only covers accidents, which we defined as "an unexpected or unusual event or happening that is external to the passenger." Air France v. Saks, 470 U. S. 392, 405 (1985). Thus, I believe Article 24(2)'s reference to Article 17 does not include nonaccidents.
As a leading treatise states with regard to Article 17: "If the passenger's lawyer does not want the Convention's limits to be applicable, he must either: a) prove the Convention does not apply because his client was not a passenger in international transportation as defined in Article 1; or b) if the Convention is applicable, that the limits are unavailable because the carrier failed to deliver a ticket as provided by Article 3; or c) the carrier was guilty of wilful misconduct (Article 25) or d) there was no 'accident'." L. Goldhirsch, The Warsaw Convention Annotated: A Legal Handbook 55 (1988) (emphasis added).
2 Article 24 provides: "(1) In the cases covered by articles 18 and 19 any action for damages, however founded, can only be brought subject to the conditions and limits set out in this convention.
"(2) In the cases covered by article 17 the provisions of the preceding paragraph shall also apply, without prejudice to the questions as to who are the persons who have the right to bring suit and what are their respective rights."
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