On Air Carriers' Liability under European Union Law: From the Perspective of Inheritance and Competition with Montreal Convention

With the rise of the idea of "European citizenship", the EU begins to strengthen the protection of citizens' basic economic rights under its jurisdiction. Specifically in the area of air transportation, the EU relies on publishing regulations to further safeguard consumers' rights in judicial practices. Those regulations contain aviation insurance, compensation for personal injury in aviation accidents and compensation for flights cancellation and delay. These regulations indeed reflect the latest developments on research and practice. Due to the particularity of the EU system, the above regulations actually trigger coordination and competition with international conventions in the field of aviation. This dissertation analyzes this issue from the perspective of EU legislation and EU court's judgments. It discovers that the EU fulfills some obligations in the convention on one hand, while substantially breaches other regulations on the other hand. Such inheritance and breakthrough of the international prevailing rules indeed improve the consumers' protection level but also greatly add burden to the air carrier. Therefore, the EU courts have to provide more legitimacy basis for these regulations during judicial practice.