The Warsaw Convention and the Montreal Convention have coined different mechanisms for the calculation of damages payable by the airlines engaged in international carriage in the event of injury to passengers during the flight. Apparently, passengers who receive such international carriage services are entitled to claim for damages under specified circumstances. Nevertheless, such claim may be frustrated by various expected or unexpected obstacles and the Ma Meilan case is a typical example of such frustration. This thesis intends to explore into the diversified and intricate issues with respect to the claim made by the injured passenger against an airline conducting business of international carriage. Such issues, as perceived and surveyed by the author, may not only exclusively be relevant to the claim in the Ma Meilan case under Chinese legal regime but may likewise be encountered in other jurisdictions, which need to be classified and analysed for proper solutions. Such issues include but are not necessarily limited to the jurisdiction of the national court seizing the case, the legal basis or rationale upon which the court may render its judgment or decision, the construction by the court of the different international treaties for the purpose of their application or exclusion or even the relationship between the municipal law and international law with regard to the legal processing of the claim raised by the passenger against international airlines. All these issues are examined in this thesis perhaps without definite solutions or answers, yet it is still conducive if these issues are clearly identified and raised for further discussions with both academic and practical significance.
Air and Space Law