180
Stevens, J., dissenting
explicitly covered by Article 24, regardless of how the Court decides this case. In those circumstances, the Convention's basic tradeoff between the carriers' interest in avoiding unlimited liability and the passengers' interest in obtaining compensation without proving fault will be fully achieved.
On the other hand, the interest in uniformity is disregarded in the category of cases that involve willful misconduct. Under the treaty, a reckless act or omission may constitute willful misconduct. See Koirala v. Thai Airways Int'l, Ltd., 126 F. 3d 1205, 1209-1210 (CA9 1997); Goldhirsch, supra, n. 1, at 121 (stating that most civil law jurisdictions have found that gross negligence satisfies Article 25). This broad definition increases the number of cases not preempted by the Convention. In these circumstances, the delegates at Warsaw did decide "to subject air carriers to the distinct, nonuniform liability rules of the individual signatory nations." Ante, at 169.
Thus, the interest in uniformity would not be significantly impaired if the number of cases not preempted, like those involving willful misconduct, was slightly enlarged to encompass those relatively rare cases in which the injury resulted from neither an accident nor a willful wrong. That the interest in uniformity is accommodated in one category of cases but not the other simply raises, without resolving, the question whether the drafters of the treaty intended to treat personal injury nonaccident cases as though they involved accidents. A plaintiff in such a case, unlike those injured by an accident, receives no benefit from the treaty, and normally should not have a claim that is valid under local law preempted, unless the treaty expressly requires that result.6
6 The Convention does require such a result, for example, in the case of accidents resulting in no physical injury. I agree with the Court that, in that case, the victim's remedies under local law are preempted by Article 24. See Eastern Airlines, Inc. v. Floyd, 499 U. S. 530, 552 (1991). My interpretation does not, therefore, produce the anomaly identified ante, at 171. Since I believe that all personal injuries (whether physical or
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