Practitioners involved in aircraft financings are likely to be familiar with the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, more commonly known as the “Cape Town Convention.” The Cape Town Convention (the Convention) is an international trade convention sponsored by UNIDROIT (the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law), that was adopted in 2001 and is designed to create a multijurisdictional system of enforceable rights in mobile equipment. The reason aircraft financiers are generally knowledgeable about the Convention is because its first protocol (or supplement) was the “Protocol on Matters Specific to Aircraft” (the Aircraft Protocol). The Aircraft Protocol, which entered into force in contracting states in March 2006, now has more than 80 contracting countries and an international electronic registry that has handled hundreds of thousands of registrations.
In April 2017, this column discussed the second protocol to the Cape Town Convention, namely the Luxembourg Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters Specific to Railway Rolling Stock (The Luxembourg Rail Protocol Steams Ahead, 65 N.Y.L.J. 257 (April 6, 2017)). The Luxembourg Rail Protocol (the Protocol), as it is generally known, which was signed on Feb. 23, 2007 in Luxembourg, aims to provide a multijurisdictional system of enforceable security interests in railway rolling stock, analogous to the system operating for aircraft under the Aircraft Protocol. This requires each item of rolling stock to be uniquely and permanently identified, but there is currently no global system for uniquely identifying rolling stock, whereas airframes and aircraft engines are uniquely identifiable through their manufacturer, model and serial number. Accordingly, an additional feature of the Luxembourg Rail Protocol is that it necessarily facilitates a new global unique numbering system—URVIS (Unique Rail Vehicle Identification System)—where an URVIS number will be allocated by the international registry and then permanently fixed to rolling stock. Rules on how the number is affixed are currently being developed by the UN.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
