Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company and Another
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mance J. |
| Judgment Date | 30 July 1998 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Commercial Court) |
| Date | 30 July 1998 |
Queen's Bench Division
Before Mr Justice Mance
International law - whether acts of foreign state justiciable - relevance of conduct in international relations
There was no absolute bar, under the principle of non-justiciability, which prevented English courts considering the conduct of a foreign state in its international relations. Such conduct was relevant when deciding whether an English court should, as a matter of public policy, refuse to give effect to a foreign law.
Mr Justice Mance so held in the Commercial Court of the Queen's Bench Division, in deciding in favour of the plaintiffs, Kuwait Airways
Corporation (KAC) that the defendants, Iraqi Airways Company (IAC) had wrongfully interfered with eight Airbus and two Boeing aircraft during Iraq's occupation of Kuwait.
In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait and passed resolution 313 and 312 proclaiming the integration of Kuwait into Iraq. The plaintiff's aircraft, which were at Kuwait airport at the time of the invasion, were seized and removed to Iraq. On September 17, there came into effect resolution 369 which purported to dissolve KAC and to transfer its assets to IAC. Thereafter, IAC treated the aircraft as its own, incorporating them into its fleet.
In January 1991, six of the KAC aircraft were flown to Iran where they were interned by the Iranian authorities. The four remaining aircraft were partially or wholly destroyed in air raids by the coalition forces on Iraq.
Mr Nicholas Chambers, QC, Mr Joseph Smouha and Mr Christopher Greenwood for the plaintiff; Mr David Donaldson, QC, for the first defendant; Mr Stephen Nathan, QC, for the second defendant
MR JUSTICE MANCE said if KAC was to succeed, it had to overcome the apparent transfer of property of all ten aircraft of IAC by resolution 369. If IAC was the owner of the aircraft, it could not wrongfully have interfered with them by the conduct described.
Under the general rule, a governmental act affecting any private property right would be recognised as valid and effective in England, if the act was valid and effective by the country where the thing was situated. A foreign decree would not be recognised however, if it was contrary to public policy.
In Oppenheimer v CattermoleELR ([1976] AC 249), the House of Lords refused to recognise a Nazi decree depriving a German Jews of their German nationality on the ground that the law...
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Kuwait Airways Corp. v. Iraqi Airways Co. et al., (2002) 291 N.R. 1 (HL)
...On these issues KAC achieved a large measure of success. Mance, J., held that IAC had wrongfully interfered with KAC's ten aircraft: see [1999] C.L.C. 31. Issues relating to causation, remoteness and amount of damages were tried by Aikens, J. He held that KAC had failed to establish it had ......
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Kuwait Investment Office v Hard
...recognition arises. Where there is no such express statement, Hobhouse J in Somalia v Woodhouse and Mance J in Kuwait Airways (No 5) [1999] CLC 31 have demonstrated that it is not open to the courts to infer recognition from the conduct of HMG. Quite apart from the practical difficulties of......
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Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company
...policy — What damages claimant could recover for conversion — Whether damage too remote. These were appeals from judgments of Mance J ([1999] CLC 31) on liability and Aikens J ([2000] 2 All ER (Comm) 360) on damages in relation to the claimant's claim arising from the wrongful seizure of it......
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Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company (Nos 4 & 5)
...Notice in that appeal IAC challenge a number of the findings made by Aikens J in his judgment. The judgment of Mance J is reported at [1999] CLC 31, and we will take our page references from that report. The judgment of Aikens J, which was laid out in numbered paragraphs, is reported at [20......