Convention on the Law Applicable to Products Liability explained

Hague Liability Convention
Long Name:	Convention on the Law Applicable to Products Liability
Location Signed:	The Hague, Netherlands
Date Effective:	1 October 1977
Condition Effective:	3 ratifications^[1]
Parties:	11
Depositor:	Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Languages:	French and English
Wikisource:	Convention on the Law Applicable to Products Liability

The Convention on the Law Applicable to Products Liability is a convention concluded in 1971 within the framework of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), which governs the law that should be applied to products liability cases.^[2] It entered into force in 1973 and as of 2020, 11 countries are party to it.^[3]

Scope of application

The convention exclusively determines the law that applies between the manufacturer or distributor of a product and the person(s) that have suffered damage. It thus does not handle which court has jurisdiction, or whether a judicial decision should be recognized.

The convention does not apply between the seller that directly sold the product to the person suffering the damage. The exclusion was chosen as the negotiators deemed the relationship between those two parties already clear enough, and would hamper wide adoption of the convention.^[4]

The products the convention applies to "shall include natural and industrial products, whether raw or manufactured and whether movable or immovable", and thus has a wide meaning. Member states can decide to exclude agricultural products from the scope of the convention (Article 16), as Spain did.

Applicable law

The convention's main articles determining which law should be applied are Articles 4 and (if that doesn't result in an applicable law) Article 5.^[2] They are summarized below:

Applicable law	If it is also...	Article	Condition
Location where damage occurred	Residence of the person suffering damage	Article 4a
	principle place of business of the person held liable	Article 4b
	place where the product was bought	Article 4c
Residence of the person suffering damage	the product was bought there	Article 5a	Article 4 does not lead to an applicable law
	the principle place of business of the person held liable	Article 5b
the principle place of business of the person held liable	not a claim based on the law of the state where the injury took place	Article 6	Article 4 and 5 do not lead to an applicable law

Parties

State	Signature	Ratification/Accession	Entry into force	Comments
				succession of Yugoslavia
				succession of Yugoslavia
				for the whole Kingdom
				does not apply to "rules of prescription and limitation"
				succession of Yugoslavia
				succession of Yugoslavia
				succession for Yugoslavia
				reserves the right not to apply it to agricultural products
				Still applicable through succession except in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo

Notes and References

1. Web site: Full text: 22: Convention of 2 October 1973 on the Law Applicable to Products Liability. Hague Conference on Private International Law. 16 February 2020.
2. 1974. 4. 178–191. Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law. Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Products Liability. Durham. Bryant.
3. Web site: Status table: 22: Convention of 2 October 1973 on the Law Applicable to Products Liability. Hague Conference on Private International Law. 16 February 2020.
4. Web site: Explanatory Report on the 1973 Hague Products Liability Convention, Offprint from the Acts and Documents of the Twelfth Session (1972), tome III, Products liability. HCCH. W.L.M. Reese. 1972.