Common use of Lack of Uniform Jurisdiction Clause in Contracts

Lack of Uniform Jurisdiction. At the time of the 1929 Warsaw Conference, the possibility of enforcing a decision in another jurisdiction was discussed. The drafters of the 1929 Warsaw Convention were aware that sometimes an action would have to be introduced in a certain jurisdiction, but that the final decision would have to be enforced in another, for example where the debtor’s assets could be found.210 This situation was explored when the competence of the place of the accident was contemplated as a possible forum. The existence of different fora is a response to this lack of automatic recognition of foreign decisions, as the plaintiffs would then have a greater chance to introduce their action in a State where a final decision could easily be enforced. Notwithstanding the above, the creation of an international specialized Court would have had the advantage of solving this question, but more essentially, would have prevented the existence of conflicting, or at least opposing decisions. Another substantial advantage of a common global Court would have been to provide a uniform interpretation of the Conven- tions.211 Such a common global Court would have indeed prevented, or at least mitigated, what Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx named in 1964 the ‘désuni- fication judiciaire’.212 The idea of such a common global Court is not new, but has always been thwarted by national resistance. As a matter of fact, an international 209 See, section 3.2.4.3(4). 210 See, for example, ICAO Doc 7838, II Conférence Internationale de Droit Privé Aérien, 4-12 Octobre 1929, Procès-Verbaux, Varsovie, 1930, p. 79-80. 211 Suggestions will be made in these regards below. See, section 5.3.1. 212 Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx, Transport Aérien International et Responsabilité 222 (Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1964). aviation Court for private law matters213 was already discussed at the time of the negotiations of the 1952 Rome Convention, but no common agree- ment was reached at this stage. Since none of the delegates were willing to risk delaying the signing of the agreed-upon text, the 1952 Rome Confer- ence merely made the following recommendation to the ICAO to examine this question: