International Transport Conventions Act 1983
| Year | 1983 |
International TransportConventions Act 1983
1983 CHAPTER 14
An Act to give effect to the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail signed on behalf of the United Kingdom on 9th May 1980; and to make further provision for the amendment of Acts giving effect to other international transport conventions so as to take account of revisions of the conventions to which they give effect.
[11th April 1983]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
The Railway Convention
1 Convention to have the force of law.
(1) The Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail signed on behalf of the United Kingdom on 9th May 1980 shall have the force of law in the United Kingdom.
(2) In this Act ‘the Convention’ means the Convention referred to in subsection (1) above including, except where the context otherwise requires—
(a ) the protocol on the privileges and immunities of the intergovernmental organisation set up by the Convention; and
(b ) the uniform rules in Appendix A and Appendix B to the Convention together with the Annexes to Appendix B.
(3) The provisions having the force of law by virtue of this section are—
(a ) the provisions of the Convention as presented to Parliament in April 1982 and set out in Command Paper 8535; and
(b ) as respects Annexes I, II and III to Appendix B to the Convention, the provisions referred to in that Command Paper;
and judicial notice shall be taken of those provisions as if they were contained in this Act.
(4) If after the coming into force of this section the provisions referred to in paragraph (a ) of subsection (3) above are republished in one or more Command Papers in the Treaty Series that subsection shall have effect as if it referred to that or those Command Papers instead of to the Command Paper there mentioned.
2 Designation of Member States etc.
(1) Her Majesty may by Order in Council from time to time certify who are the Member States for the purposes of the Convention.
(2) An Order in Council under subsection (1) above may also certify whether the United Kingdom or any other Member State has made a reservation under—
(a ) paragraph 3 of Article 12 of the Convention (arbitration); or
(b ) paragraph 1 of Article 3 in Appendix A to the Convention (exclusion of own nationals etc.).
(3) Her Majesty may by Order in Council from time to time certify whether the uniform rules referred to in section 1(2)(b ) above are suspended by virtue of paragraph 3 of Article 20 of the Convention (suspension pending agreement to amendments) in respect of traffic with or between any Member States.
(4) An Order in Council under this section shall, except so far as it has been superseded by a subsequent Order, be conclusive evidence of the matters so certified.
3 Fatal accidents.
(1) Where by virtue of the Convention any person has a right of action in respect of the death of a passenger by reason of his being a person whom the passenger was under a legal duty to maintain—
(a ) subject to subsection (2) below, no action in respect of the passenger's death shall be brought for the benefit of that person under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 ; but
(b ) nothing in section 2(3) of that Act (not more than one action in respect of the same subject-matter of complaint) shall prevent an action being brought under that Act for the benefit of any other person.
(2) Nothing in subsection (1)(a ) above affects the right of any person to claim damages for bereavement under section 1A of the said Act of 1976.
(3) Section 4 of the said Act of 1976 (exclusion of certain benefits in assessment of damages) shall apply in relation to an action brought by any person under the Convention as it applies in relation to an action under that Act.
(4) Where separate proceedings are brought under the Convention and under the said Act of 1976 in respect of the death of a passenger, a court, in awarding damages under that Act, shall take into account any damages awarded in the proceedings brought under the Convention and shall have jurisdiction to make any part of its award conditional on the result of those proceedings.
(5) In the application of this section to Northern Ireland references to the said Act of 1976 and to sections 1A, 2(3) and 4 of that Act shall be construed as references to the Fatal Accidents (Northern Ireland) Order 1977 and Articles 3A, 4(3) and 6 of that Order.
(6) The provisions of Schedule 1 to this Act shall, as respects Scotland, have effect in lieu of the foregoing provisions of this section.
4 Power of court to take account of other proceedings.
(1) A court before which proceedings are brought to enforce a liability which is limited by any of the provisions of the Convention may at any stage of the proceedings make any such order as appears to the court to be just and equitable in view of those provisions and of any other proceedings which have been, or are likely to be, commenced in the United Kingdom or elsewhere to enforce the liability in whole or in part.
(2) Without prejudice to subsection (1) above, a court before which proceedings are brought to enforce a liability which is limited as aforesaid shall, where the liability is or may be partly enforceable in other proceedings in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, have jurisdiction to award an amount less than the court would have awarded if the limitation applied solely to the proceedings before the court, or to make any part of its award conditional on the result of any other proceedings.
5 Conversion of special drawing rights into sterling.
(1) The special drawing rights by reference to which any liability is limited by the Convention shall, in the case of judicial proceedings or an arbitration in the United Kingdom, be converted into their sterling equivalent on the day of the judgment or award.
(2) For the purposes of this section the value on a particular day of a special drawing right shall be treated as equal to such a sum in sterling as the International Monetary Fund have fixed as being the equivalent of one special drawing right—
(a ) for that day; or
(b ) if no sum has been so fixed for that day, for the last day before that day for which a sum has been so fixed.
(3) A certificate given by or on behalf of the Treasury stating—
(a ) that a particular sum in sterling has been fixed as aforesaid for a particular day; or
(b ) that no sum has been so fixed for a particular day and that a particular sum in sterling has been so fixed for a day which is the last day for which a sum has been so fixed before the particular day,
shall be conclusive evidence of those matters for the purposes of subsection (2) above; and a document purporting to be such a certificate shall in any proceedings be received in evidence and, unless the contrary is proved, be deemed to be such a certificate.
(4) The Treasury may charge a...
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