Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATION
EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY
European Convention on Products Liability. This Convention has been adopted by the Council of Europe and sets out the principle of a producer’s liability for personal injury and death caused by his product due to a defect. The principle of strict liability is adopted and the burden of proof is on the injured party to establish the causal link between the damage and the defect. The defendant will be absolved from liability if he proves that the defect was not in existence at the time when the product was put into circulation by him. There are provisions relating to contributory negligence.
FINLAND
A new Act on Carriage by Air has been passed by the Parliament. The Act, which covers international as well as domestic carriage of passengers and goods, enables Finland to ratify the 1955 Hague Protocol to the Warsaw Convention and the Guadalajara Convention. The corresponding legislation was passed in the other Scandinavian countries during the 1960s.
UNITED KINGDOM
Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Bill—Third reading House of Lords, Nov. 9, 1976.
Carriage By Air (Parties to Convention) (Supplementary) (No. 2) Order, 1976. SI 1159. Made under the Carriage by Air Act 1961, this Order certifies additional High Contracting Parties to the Warsaw and Hague Conventions.
Civil Aviation Act 1971 (Commencement No. 5) Order, 1976. SI 1593. Brings part of Schedule 11 to the Civil Aviation Act 1971 into force on Oct. 26, 1976.
Continental Shelf (Designation of additional areas) Order, 1976. SI 1153.
Continental Shelf (Protection of Installations) (No. 3) Order, 1976. SI 1308. Operative Aug. 12, 1976. States that certain areas of the sea are safety zones and prohibits ships from entering such zones.
Continental Shelf (Protection of Installations) (No. 4) Order, 1976. SI 1497. Operative Sept. 11, 1976.
The Dock Work Regulation Bill has received Royal Assent. It enables the statutory control of dock work to be brought up to date and to be modified as appropriate to meet changing conditions in the industry. The provisions of the Act will be brought into force by order as soon as practicable in the New Year. The Act provides for the re-constitution of the National Dock Labour Board with wider representation than at present, and for the preparation of a new Dock Labour Scheme. All work which is dock work for the purposes of the present Scheme or treated as dock work by custom and practice will be covered by the new Scheme. All work of loading and unloading ships at places not covered by the present Dock Workers’ Employment Scheme will, with certain specified exceptions, have to be reported to the National Dock Labour Board by the employers concerned. The Board will then, under the criteria set out in the Act, recommend to the Secretary of State whether or not particular work should be covered by the new Scheme.
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