13.
Carriage by Air Bill
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Economic Services, Mr Stephen Ip, in moving the second reading of the Carriage by Air Bill in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the Carriage by Air Bill 1996 be read a second time.
At present, carriage by air is governed by relevant provisions of the United Kingdom (UK) Carriage by Air Act 1961, Carriage by Air (Supplementary Provisions) Act 1962 and the Carriage by Air Acts (Application of Provisions) Order 1967, which are currently applied to Hong Kong by two UK Orders in Council made in 1967. These UK enactments give effect to three international agreements (namely, the Warsaw Convention, the Hague Protocol and the Guadalajara Convention) which govern international carriage by air and apply similar provisions to non-international carriage by air and carriage of mail and postal packages. Among other things, they set out the liability limits of air carriers in respect of death or injury of passengers or damage to baggage or cargo, specify the persons who are eligible to lodge a claim against the carriers, set the time limit for bringing proceedings against carriers and specify which States have jurisdiction over cases.
The purpose of the Bill is to localise the relevant UK enactments thereby preserving the current statutory framework on carriage by air in Hong Kong after 30 June 1997. The Bill reproduces the provisions and schedules of the two 1967 Orders with some modifications in the form of presentation to conform with Hong Kong's legislative style.
The only substantive changes between the provisions currently applied to Hong Kong and that contained in the Bill are mainly technical. They relate to the replacement of UK authorities respectively by the Governor or the Governor acting on the instructions of the UK Secretary of State in the certification of contracting parties to the international agreements for evidentiary purposes in Clauses 4 and 14 of the Bill and the exemption of certain uses of aircraft from the application of the legislation in Clause 8 of the Bill. The Bill also provides for the replacement of the Governor by the Monetary Authority for the specification of Hong Kong Dollar equivalents of "francs" and "special drawing rights" for domestic enforcement of liability limits in Clauses 6 and 16 of the Bill. New provisions are also included to enable certificates of Hong Kong Dollar equivalents to be issued at a fee for evidence purposes.