A New Proposal for the Reform of Commercial Air Crash Litigation

IN RECENT YEARS the tort litigation of major commerilcial air crashes has been one of the most controversial issues in the field of air law.The existing system has been called "outmoded, anachronistic and frequently unworkable"' and "the tortured, torturous, even torturing tort system ' 2 by prominent practitioners.Although the system's problems are many, its two most serious are the inconsistent treatment that the system of multiple state laws gives to victims from different jurisdictions and the protracted delay from the time of loss until judgment.These problems, among others, account for the flurry of proposals for reform from academics and practitioners alike.