Olympic Airways‘ Unusual Lineup: You don’t see this every day: Justice Thomas writes the majority opinion for six members of the Court. Justice Scalia writes the dissent for himself and Justice O’Connor. The decision in Olympic Airways v. Husain, involving the air carrier’s liability for the death of Husain’s husband under the Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention, was just released this morning, so more details will follow once I’ve read it.

UPDATE: Here’s the dispute between Justices Thomas and Scalia. Under Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention, air carriers are liable for a passenger’s death caused by an “accident” occurring in connection with an international flight. Justice Thomas’ majority opinion held that it is an “accident” under the Convention “when the carrier’s unusual and unexpected refusal to assist a passenger is a link in a chain of causation” resulting in the passenger’s death to the aggravation of a pre-existing medical condition. This conclusion was based upon the text of the Convention and the Supreme Court’s prior decision in Air France v. Saks.

Justice Scalia argued that majority’s opinion conflicts with judicial opinions of courts in “sister signatories” England and Australia. While not usually a fan of looking to foreign case law, Justice Scalia argued that the interpretations of treaty language by foreign courts are due “considerable weight.” Among other things, such a doctrine will ensure more consistent application of a treaty’s terms across nations. In Justice Scalia’s view, the majority’s reasoning conflicts with two foreign cases and fails to justify not following the foreign interpretations of the “accident” requirement. In perhaps the best line of the dissent (not joined by Justice O’Connor), Scalia rejects “[t]he Court’s new absttmiousness with regard to foreign fare.” Interestingly enough, as Justice Thomas’ opinion points out, neither of the two judicial decisions in question is from a court of last resort. Rather, both of the opinions with which Justice Scalia is concerned are from intermediate courts.

The full opinions may be found here.