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16 Issues Aviation L. & Pol'y 147 (2016-2017)
International Conventions on Aviation and the Brazilian Constitution: The Case of the CDC

handle is hein.journals/isavialp16 and id is 151 raw text is: International Conventions on Aviation and the Brazilian Constitution: The Case of the CDC by Delphine Defossez* 1. Introduction Plato differentiated norms from values or conventions. Norms protect values but the two are different and should not be con- fused.' However, the approach taken by the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil with regard to that nation's Consumer Code has disregarded this principle. Indeed, the norms that are enacted within Brazil's Constitution should not be mixed with values, in this case the protection of the consumer. The approach taken by the Federal Supreme Court is also dangerous on another level as it does not respect the principle of reciprocity with regard to trea- ties. It seems that the Court itself has confused values with inter- national obligations. The exercise of a State's power is based on a legal infrastruc- ture, which is anchored in a constitution that guarantees mini- mum rights to the population.2 These rights are preserved by institutional mechanisms based on the concept of the Rule of Law. Brazil has ratified both the Warsaw and the Montreal Con- ventions, which apply to liability cases involving international transportation by air. The Warsaw Convention established a fault-based system of responsibility and a limitation of liability for air carriers. The Montreal Convention of 1999 modernized * LL.B, Maastricht University; LL.M., European University Institute; LL.M., Swansea University; Ph.D. candidate, Universidade de Brasilia (UnB), Bol- sista da Capes. 1 RICHARD MARBACK, PLATO'S DREAM OF SOPHISTRY (1999). 2 Not all modern societies have a Constitution to limit the sovereign's power. For example, in the United Kingdom the Parliament is seen as the sovereign, having the power to change any rules that exist in its political system. See A.V. DICEY, THE LAW OF THE CONSTITUTION 27-49 (Ox- ford Univ. Press 2013).

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