Damages In Carriage By Air: How To Avoid Suing In The Wrong Jurisdiction

Introduction
In order to determine in which jurisdiction to commence an action for damages in claims relating to carriage of persons and cargo by air, two levels of jurisdiction have to be determined namely: the Treaty Jurisdiction and the Local or National Jurisdiction.

Treaty Jurisdiction
It is the law that where a domestic or Common Law right has been enacted into a statutory provision, a passenger must resort to the statutory provision, not the domestic or Common Law position. The statutory provision in this case is the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air, Montreal 1999 (the "Montreal Convention"), domesticated by the Civil Aviation Act, CAP C13, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 (as updated to 2010).