Status of ratification

The status of those countries that have ratified the Cape Town Convention and its Aircraft Protocol is maintained by UNIDROIT, the legal depositary of these instruments.

AWG work on ratification

AWG is committed to the global ratification of the Cape Town Convention. It consults with governments around the world on ratification, including on the declarations to be made and the relationship between the Cape Town Convention and national law.

For complete and official information relating to ratification and declarations, see materials published by UNIDROIT.

AWG work on implementation

For ratification of the treaty to have meaningful legal and economic effect, its terms, together with the declarations made, must prevail over conflicting law in contracting states. 

AWG consults with governments on ensuring that, in theory and practice, the treaty so prevail. We refer to this as the ‘primacy’ of the Cape Town Convention.

Primacy is required by international law: article 27 of the Vienna Convention on Treaties prevents the assertion of national law reason for treaty non-compliance.

Declarations under the Cape Town Convention

The Cape Town Convention (CTC) is not a treaty that a country simply decides to ratify or not. Rather, a number of choices need to be made at the time of ratification. These choices – declarations – are an integral part of the treaty system. 

Most importantly, certain declarations are specifically designed to reduce transaction risk, and, thus, produce economic benefits. These declarations have been identified in the OECD Aircraft Sector Understanding (ASU) as qualifying declarations.

AWG also encourages all countries to ensure that any declaration under Convention Article 39 restricts preferred non-consensual liens / rights to those that are customary. In no event (as prevented by the treaty) may such a declaration purport to expand such liens / rights beyond those under current law.   

Making the qualifying declarations

In order to have the full economic benefits, a country must: 

1. make the qualifying declarations under the OECD Aircraft Sector Understanding, 
2. assure the Cape Town Convention has the force of law, and, 
3. to the extent of any conflict, prevails over other law in such country. 

The qualifying declarations can be found under the OECD Aircraft Sector Understanding at the OECD’s website. 

Ratification materials developed by AWG

AWG prepared a document relating to the ratification and implementation of the Cape Town Convention. 

This includes a short-form of model legislation relating to the ratification and accession implementation of CTC.  

This short-form legislation includes: 

• declarations under the CTC
• regulations relating to the deregistration and export under an IDERA 
• court rules relating to judicial procedures under CTC
• procedures for exercising possessory related non-judicial remedies under CTC