• Title/Summary/Keyword: new proof

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A chemical conjugate between HER2-targeting antibody fragment and Pseudomonas exotoxin A fragment demonstrates cytotoxic effects on HER2-expressing breast cancer cells

  • Lee, Sunju;Park, Sangsu;Nguyen, Minh Tan;Lee, Eunyoung;Kim, Julee;Baek, Sangki;Kim, Chong Jai;Jang, Yeon Jin;Choe, Han
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.52 no.8
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    • pp.496-501
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    • 2019
  • Conventionally, immunotoxins have been produced as a single polypeptide from fused genes of an antibody fragment and a toxin. In this study, we adopted a unique approach of chemical conjugation of a toxin protein and an antibody fragment. The two genes were separately expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to high levels of purity. The two purified proteins were conjugated using a chemical linker. The advantage of this approach is its ability to overcome the problem of low recombinant immunotoxin production observed in some immunotoxins. Another advantage is that various combinations of immunotoxins can be prepared with fewer efforts, because the chemical conjugation of components is relatively simpler than the processes involved in cloning, expression, and purification of multiple immunotoxins. As a proof of concept, the scFv of trastuzumab and the PE24 fragment of Pseudomonas exotoxin A were separately produced using E. coli and then chemically crosslinked. The new immunotoxin was tested on four breast cancer cell lines variably expressing HER2. The chemically crosslinked immunotoxin exhibited cytotoxicity in proportion to the expression level of HER2. In conclusion, the present study revealed an alternative method of generating an immunotoxin that could effectively reduce the viability of HER2-expressing breast cancer cells. These results suggest the effectiveness of this method of immunotoxin crosslinking as a suitable alternative for producing immunotoxins.

A Study on Punitive Damages System in Technology Protection Related Laws: Focusing on Patent Act, TSPA, ITPA, FTSA, MBCA (기술보호 관련 법률에서의 징벌적 손해배상제도에 대한 고찰: 특허법, 영업비밀보호법, 산업기술보호법, 하도급법, 상생협력법을 중심으로)

  • Cho, Yongsun
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.42 no.1
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    • pp.19-41
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    • 2020
  • In Korea, punitive damages were introduced in the 2011 Fair Transactions in Subcontracting Act(FTSA), and in 2019 the Patent Act, Trade Secret Protection Act(TSPA), Industrial Technology Protection Act(ITPA), and Mutually Beneficial Cooperation Act(MBCA). In punitive damages, the judgment of 'intentional' is especially important, and it is necessary to refer to US precedents since there is no accumulated case. Major Company can avoid intentional counseling through the advice of lawyers, but SMEs may have to punish punitive damages due to a lack of awareness of the system. In the case of TSPA, ITPA, FTSA, and MBCA, except for Patent Act, the provisions related to proof of damage have not been well maintained yet. Therefore, the data submission order system of these laws needs to be revised to the level of patent Act need to be. TSPA needs to be amended in the future to estimate the amount of the royalties in estimating the amount of damages so that it can receive the 'reasonably' estimated amount rather than the usual amount. On the other hand, ITPA, FTSA, and MBCA do not have any provisions for the estimation of damages. Besides, it is difficult to evaluate the technology value in the case of leakage or deodorization of new technologies. Therefore, valuation needs to be carried out by a credible institution along with the development of a model for calculating damages.

New in vitro multiple cardiac ion channel screening system for preclinical Torsades de Pointes risk prediction under the Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay concepta

  • Jin Ryeol An;Seo-Yeong Mun;In Kyo Jung;Kwan Soo Kim;Chan Hyeok Kwon;Sun Ok Choi;Won Sun Park
    • The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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    • v.27 no.3
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    • pp.267-275
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    • 2023
  • Cardiotoxicity, particularly drug-induced Torsades de Pointes (TdP), is a concern in drug safety assessment. The recent establishment of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (human iPSC-CMs) has become an attractive human-based platform for predicting cardiotoxicity. Moreover, electrophysiological assessment of multiple cardiac ion channel blocks is emerging as an important parameter to recapitulate proarrhythmic cardiotoxicity. Therefore, we aimed to establish a novel in vitro multiple cardiac ion channel screening-based method using human iPSC-CMs to predict the drug-induced arrhythmogenic risk. To explain the cellular mechanisms underlying the cardiotoxicity of three representative TdP high- (sotalol), intermediate- (chlorpromazine), and low-risk (mexiletine) drugs, and their effects on the cardiac action potential (AP) waveform and voltage-gated ion channels were explored using human iPSC-CMs. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we investigated the effects of cardioactive channel inhibitors on the electrophysiological profile of human iPSC-CMs before evaluating the cardiotoxicity of these drugs. In human iPSC-CMs, sotalol prolonged the AP duration and reduced the total amplitude (TA) via selective inhibition of IKr and INa currents, which are associated with an increased risk of ventricular tachycardia TdP. In contrast, chlorpromazine did not affect the TA; however, it slightly increased AP duration via balanced inhibition of IKr and ICa currents. Moreover, mexiletine did not affect the TA, yet slightly reduced the AP duration via dominant inhibition of ICa currents, which are associated with a decreased risk of ventricular tachycardia TdP. Based on these results, we suggest that human iPSC-CMs can be extended to other preclinical protocols and can supplement drug safety assessments.

The Use of Korean Traditional Liquors and Plan for Encouraging It (전통주 이용 실태 및 활성화 방안)

  • Kim, Young-Joo;Han, Young-Sil
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.31-41
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    • 2006
  • The purpose of this study was to examine the use of different sorts of Korean traditional liquor among male and female adults in Seoul and Gyeonggi province, their awareness of them and their preference in an effort to discuss what problems Korean traditional liquors were faced with and how they could gain popularity among people in general. First, It is investigated of drinking frequency by gender, 51.3 percent of the male adults drunk once or twice a week, and 33.2 percent of the female adults drunk once or twice a month. Thus, the men drunk more often than the women. By age, the adults who were in their 20s and 30s were far different from those who were in their 50s above in drinking frequency. Second, regarding what kind of liquor they enjoyed, the men enjoyed Soju the most, followed by beer and traditional liquors. The women enjoyed beer the most, followed by Soju and wine. The favorite liquor of the men was Soju, followed by beer and traditional liquor, and the women most liked for beer, followed by wine and Soju. The female adults preferred low-proof liquor more than the male adults. Third, concerning their awareness of traditional liquor, Andong-soju was most widely viewed as traditional liquor, which were followed by Munbaeju, Gyeongju-gyodongbeopju, Gyeongju-beopju, Gukhwaju, Ssal- makgeolri, and Geumsan-insamju. Overall, they were rarely aware what traditional liquor was. Fourth, as to purchase experience, the men and the older people had more experience to buy traditional drinks than the women and the younger ones. Fifth, as for anju (dishes for traditional drinks), they believed that panfried food and Kimchi should be served with coarse liquor. Panfried and streamed dishes were considered to be good complements to Takju (rice wine) and Cheongju (clear strained rice wine), and pot stew and soup were looked upon as good complements to distilled liquor. The above-mentioned findings illustrated that in order to step up the development of the traditional liquor industry, perpetual research efforts should be put into adding new tastes to unique traditional liquor drinks. And it's required to commercialize those drinks, and multiple P.R. and marketing strategies should be prepared to promote their sales.

Study on the Influential Factors of Back to Farmer's Satisfaction to Rural Life (귀농자의 귀농만족도에 미치는 영향 요인 연구)

  • Heo, Chul Moo;Ha, Kyu Soo
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.233-250
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    • 2014
  • Since 2000, people who lived in the city begin to see returning to farming in a new perspective. People returning to the farming became a trend and therefore, the number of people who are returning to farm are increasing. Because of the concept of take up farming is developing as an idea of establishing a new business, the government agency and the government-related organization are very supportive as the government is interested in the business. The conclusion is below regarding the analysis result In order to receive the analysis of actual proof, we conducted a survey targeting 300 people who returned to farming village in the whole country, excluding Jeju Island from Aug 1st 2013 to Aug 30th 2013. Except uncandidness answers, we used 252 survey results of our sample. Also we used SPSS Wim Ver. 18.0 to draw a conclusion regarding the collected sample. First, regarding of Hypothesis 1 "Personal characteristic will give positive effects in returning to farming village", was partially supportive Second, regarding of Hypothesis 2 "Reason of settling will give positive effects in returning to farming village", was partially supportive Third, regarding of Hypothesis 3 "Geographic characteristics will give positive effects in returning to farming village", was partially supportive Fourth, the effect of social support between the individual characteristic, reason of settling, and geographic characteristics, the result indicated that the social support was partially supportive in farm returners regarding reason of settlement. However, there were no social support effect in returning to farm satisfaction regarding of geographic characteristic. Fifth, after analysing the difference of personal characteristic regarding demographic characteristic, reason of settlement, and geographic characteristic, the result indicated that people who are age 40+, who graduated graduate school lived in metropolitan city, settling to Jeollabuk-do felt higher satisfaction of returning to village than people who are in their 30s, graduated university, lived in city/district, and now settling to Kyung-book and Choong-nam.

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Hardware Approach to Fuzzy Inference―ASIC and RISC―

  • Watanabe, Hiroyuki
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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    • 1993.06a
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    • pp.975-976
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    • 1993
  • This talk presents the overview of the author's research and development activities on fuzzy inference hardware. We involved it with two distinct approaches. The first approach is to use application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) technology. The fuzzy inference method is directly implemented in silicon. The second approach, which is in its preliminary stage, is to use more conventional microprocessor architecture. Here, we use a quantitative technique used by designer of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) to modify an architecture of a microprocessor. In the ASIC approach, we implemented the most widely used fuzzy inference mechanism directly on silicon. The mechanism is beaded on a max-min compositional rule of inference, and Mandami's method of fuzzy implication. The two VLSI fuzzy inference chips are designed, fabricated, and fully tested. Both used a full-custom CMOS technology. The second and more claborate chip was designed at the University of North Carolina(U C) in cooperation with MCNC. Both VLSI chips had muliple datapaths for rule digital fuzzy inference chips had multiple datapaths for rule evaluation, and they executed multiple fuzzy if-then rules in parallel. The AT & T chip is the first digital fuzzy inference chip in the world. It ran with a 20 MHz clock cycle and achieved an approximately 80.000 Fuzzy Logical inferences Per Second (FLIPS). It stored and executed 16 fuzzy if-then rules. Since it was designed as a proof of concept prototype chip, it had minimal amount of peripheral logic for system integration. UNC/MCNC chip consists of 688,131 transistors of which 476,160 are used for RAM memory. It ran with a 10 MHz clock cycle. The chip has a 3-staged pipeline and initiates a computation of new inference every 64 cycle. This chip achieved an approximately 160,000 FLIPS. The new architecture have the following important improvements from the AT & T chip: Programmable rule set memory (RAM). On-chip fuzzification operation by a table lookup method. On-chip defuzzification operation by a centroid method. Reconfigurable architecture for processing two rule formats. RAM/datapath redundancy for higher yield It can store and execute 51 if-then rule of the following format: IF A and B and C and D Then Do E, and Then Do F. With this format, the chip takes four inputs and produces two outputs. By software reconfiguration, it can store and execute 102 if-then rules of the following simpler format using the same datapath: IF A and B Then Do E. With this format the chip takes two inputs and produces one outputs. We have built two VME-bus board systems based on this chip for Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The board is now installed in a robot at ORNL. Researchers uses this board for experiment in autonomous robot navigation. The Fuzzy Logic system board places the Fuzzy chip into a VMEbus environment. High level C language functions hide the operational details of the board from the applications programme . The programmer treats rule memories and fuzzification function memories as local structures passed as parameters to the C functions. ASIC fuzzy inference hardware is extremely fast, but they are limited in generality. Many aspects of the design are limited or fixed. We have proposed to designing a are limited or fixed. We have proposed to designing a fuzzy information processor as an application specific processor using a quantitative approach. The quantitative approach was developed by RISC designers. In effect, we are interested in evaluating the effectiveness of a specialized RISC processor for fuzzy information processing. As the first step, we measured the possible speed-up of a fuzzy inference program based on if-then rules by an introduction of specialized instructions, i.e., min and max instructions. The minimum and maximum operations are heavily used in fuzzy logic applications as fuzzy intersection and union. We performed measurements using a MIPS R3000 as a base micropro essor. The initial result is encouraging. We can achieve as high as a 2.5 increase in inference speed if the R3000 had min and max instructions. Also, they are useful for speeding up other fuzzy operations such as bounded product and bounded sum. The embedded processor's main task is to control some device or process. It usually runs a single or a embedded processer to create an embedded processor for fuzzy control is very effective. Table I shows the measured speed of the inference by a MIPS R3000 microprocessor, a fictitious MIPS R3000 microprocessor with min and max instructions, and a UNC/MCNC ASIC fuzzy inference chip. The software that used on microprocessors is a simulator of the ASIC chip. The first row is the computation time in seconds of 6000 inferences using 51 rules where each fuzzy set is represented by an array of 64 elements. The second row is the time required to perform a single inference. The last row is the fuzzy logical inferences per second (FLIPS) measured for ach device. There is a large gap in run time between the ASIC and software approaches even if we resort to a specialized fuzzy microprocessor. As for design time and cost, these two approaches represent two extremes. An ASIC approach is extremely expensive. It is, therefore, an important research topic to design a specialized computing architecture for fuzzy applications that falls between these two extremes both in run time and design time/cost. TABLEI INFERENCE TIME BY 51 RULES {{{{Time }}{{MIPS R3000 }}{{ASIC }}{{Regular }}{{With min/mix }}{{6000 inference 1 inference FLIPS }}{{125s 20.8ms 48 }}{{49s 8.2ms 122 }}{{0.0038s 6.4㎲ 156,250 }} }}

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The Fiduciary Duties of Doctor in Clinical Trials (임상시험에서 의사의 선량한 관리자의 주의의무)

  • Lee, Jiyoun
    • The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.163-207
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    • 2020
  • Korea has been positioned as the leading country in the industry of clinical trials as the clinical trail of Korea has developed for the recent 10 years. Clinical trial has plays a significant role in the development of medicine and the increase of curability. However, it has inevitable risk as the purpose of the clinical trial is to prove the safety and effectiveness of new drugs. Therefore, the clinical trial should be controlled properly to protect the health of the subjects of clinical trial and to ensure that they exercise a right of self-determination. In this context, the fiduciary duties of doctors who conduct clinical trials is especially important. The Pharmaceutical Affairs Act and the relevant regulations define several duties of doctors who conduct clinical trials. In particular, the duty to protection of subjects and the duty to provide information constitute the main fiduciary duties to the subjects. Those are essentially similar to the fiduciary duties of doctors in usual treatment from the perspective of the values promoted by the law and the content of the law. Nonetheless, clinical trials put more emphasis on the duties to provide explanation than in usual treatment. Further research and study are required to establish the concrete standard for the duty of care. However, if the blind pursuit of higher standards for the duty of care or to pass the burden of proof to doctors may result in disrupting the development of clinical trials, limiting the accessibility of patients to new treatment and even violating the principle of sharing damage equally and properly. In addition to these duties, the laws of clinical trials define several duties of doctors. Any decision on whether the violation of the law constitutes the violation of the fiduciary duty and justifies the demand for compensation of damages should be based on whether relevant law aims to protect the safety and benefit of subjects, even if in an incidental way, the degree to which such violation breaches the values promoted by the law and the concrete of violation of benefit of law, the detailed acts of such violation. The legal interests of the subjects can be protected effectively by guaranteeing compliance with those duties and establishing judicial and administrative controls to ensure that the benefit of subjects are protected properly in individual cases.

A Study on the Popularization of Traditional Korean Art through the Case Study of Convergence of K-POP and Traditional Art - Focusing on the idolization of BTS - (K-POP과 전통예술의 융합 사례분석을 통한 한국전통예술의 대중화 방안 연구 - BTS의 IDOL을 중심으로 -)

  • Cho, Young-In
    • Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.27-36
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    • 2019
  • Today, the Korean wave headed by K-pop is newly named as 'New Korean Wave' in that it has been extended to United States, Europe and Russia. K-POP, the main player of the new Korean wave, has been successful in SNS marketing channels. Furthermore, the content of K-pop has attracted the attention of the global audience. The media and public attention on the Korean Wave is meaningful because it is not merely a cultural export. It also makes Korean people feel national pride, seeing the mental influence of its culture on other regions. Moreover, the development of the cultural industry in our society, which is different from industrial or material development, is a proof that Korean society is at the center of globalization. Until the 20th century, Korean culture had been rather receptive than dominant. In other words, it was focused more on acceptance of other cultures than active creation or outflow of its own. Now, however, K-POP is not anymore copying Western culture. It is creating its own unique characters, which makes K-pop very competitive. Korean culture has been formed for a long time in Korea's unique historical background. Korean popular culture also has to establish a solid foothold in world markets through its distinctive and traditional feature. The positive consumer response to Korean pop culture will create the added value of Korean contents and their derivatives, which will heighten Korea's national image also. In other words, if traditional art and K-POP are converged and equipped with our own unique and highly artistic culture, they will take the lead in the global cultural art market. In this study, we will recognize the possibility, growth and development of K-pop culture and analyze the cases of combining K-pop and Korean traditional art. First, we have to blend traditional art and other various genres to create diverse contents, and we have to actively utilize media channels. Second, we must improve people's awareness of the copyrights of traditional art. Also, we have to mitigate the copyrights of creative dance to expand the disclosure of contents which can be utilized. Third, we have to learn about traditional arts from younger age. Fourth, we will expand traditional arts to the whole of Korean cultural policies, which can enhance the nation's cultural value and create economic benefits. These four are expected to be effective ways to preserve the identity of traditional art and at the same time, globalize Korean culture.

Strain Improvement of the Genus Pleurotus by Protoplast Fusion (원형질체(原形質體) 융합(融合)에 의한 느타리버섯속(屬)의 품종개발(品種開發))

  • Yoo, Young-Bok;You, Chang-Hyun;Cha, Dong-Yeul
    • The Korean Journal of Mycology
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    • v.21 no.3
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    • pp.200-211
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    • 1993
  • Somatic hybrids of Pleurotus florida ASI 2016 and Pleurotus ostreatus ASI 2018 were obtained by protoplast fusion. The 40 fusants($P1{\sim}P40$) was examined for the yield on fermented and pasteurized rice straw in a tray. The carpophore yield of them were showed as the range of $27.0{\sim}155.2$, based on parental values of 100(ASI 2018), The pilei of fusants between orange white colored P. florida and dark grey colored P. ostreatus had mixed colors in the young stage. Other breeding programmes were performed to improve new varieties with high yield and good quality. A new oyster mushroom variety, Wonhyeongneutaribeosus(P72), was developed at the Agricultural Sciences Institute, Rural Development Administration in 1990. This P.florida-ostreatus-ostreatus hybrid P72 was selected from 38 protoplast fusion products($P41{\sim}P78$) between P.florida-ostreatus recombinant P5-M 43-arg rib and P. ostreatus ASI 2-13-0 2001-19-pro orn. The yield indexes of 38 hybrids ranged $40.5{\sim}152.7$ compared with the parental values of 100(ASI 2001). Hybrid P72 was characterized by the large fruiting bundle of semispherical shape with long stipe and by the small and circular pileus, resulting in lower harvesting cost. A significant increase in carpophore production was observed in somatic hybrids of protoplasts due to heterosis. A comparision of hybrid with parents P72 was made using isozyme analysis. The esterase banding patterns could be characterized by new bands in the hybrids. Seven fusion products of four crosses between P.florida ASI 2016 and P. ostreatus ASI 2018 were analysed with respect to the distribution of progenies and segregation of gene markers by random basidiospore analysis. Segregation of alleles should yield progeny of four genotypes in a Mendelian ratio of 1 : 1 : 1 : 1 for prototrophs, auxotrophs of one parental type, auxotrophs of the other parental type, and auxotrophic recombinants, respectively. However, five fusants of them did not detect one parental, P.ostreatus, type. Basidiospores could yield progeny of 16 genotypes in the cross of one of the recombinant P5-M43-arg $rib{\times}P. ostreatus$ ASI 2-13-pro orn but the segregants of three fusants were not detected clearly. The allele ratio of loci could be expected 1 : 1 : 1 : 1 for arg, rib, pro and orn. The ratio, however, would be changed to 4 : 1 : 1 : 1 with increasing proportion of argo In almost all the fusants, prototrophic recombinants were recovered in large numbers against auxotrophic markers. Parental genotypes were recovered with the recombinant progeny amounting to $38.68{\sim}99.56%$. The analysis provides proof of heterokaryosis and strong evidence for haploidy of vegetative nuclei, a sexual cycle consisting of nuclear fusion and meiosis.

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Liability of the Compensation for Damage Caused by the International Passenger's Carrier by Air in Montreal Convention (몬트리올조약에 있어 국제항공여객운송인의 손해배상책임)

  • Kim, Doo-Hwan
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.18
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    • pp.9-39
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    • 2003
  • The rule of the Warsaw Convention of 1929 are well known and still being all over the world. The Warsaw Convention is undoubtedly the most widely accepted private international air law treaty with some 140 countries. In the international legal system for air transportation, the Warsaw Convention has played a major role for more than half century, and has been revised many times in consideration of the rapid developments of air high technology, changes of social and economic circumstances, need for the protection of passengers. Some amendments became effective, but others are still not effective. As a result, the whole international legal system for air transportation is at past so complicated and tangled. However, the 'Warsaw system' consists of the Warsaw Convention of 1929 the Guadalajara Convention of 1961, a supplementary convention, and the following six protocols: (1) the Hague Protocol of 1955, (2) the Guatemala Protocol of 1971, (3) the Montreal Additional Protocols, No.1, (4) the Montreal Additional Protocol No.2, (5) the Montreal Additional Protocol No.3, and (6) the Montreal Additional Protocol No.4. of 1975. As a fundamental principle of the air carrier's liability in the international convention and protocols, for instance in the Warsaw Convention and the Hague Protocol, the principle of limited liability and a presumed fault system has been adopted. Subsequently, the Montreal Inter-carrier Agreement of 1966, the Guatemala City Protocol, the Montreal Additional Protocol No.3, and the Montreal Additional Protocol No. 4 of 1975 maintained the limited liability, but substituted the presumed liability system by an absolute liability, that is, strict liability system. The Warsaw System, which sets relatively low compensation limits for victims of aircraft accidents and regulates the limited liability for death and injury of air passengers, had become increasingly outdated. Japanese Airlines and Inter-carrier Agreement of International Air Transport Association in 1995 has been adopted the unlimited liability of air carrier in international flight. The IATA Inter-Carrier Agreement, in which airlines in international air transportation agree to waive the limit of damages, was long and hard in coming, but it was remarkable achievement given the political and economic realities of the world. IATA deserves enormous credit for bringing it about. The Warsaw System is controversial and questionable. In order to find rational solution to disputes between nations which adopted differing liability systems in international air transportation, we need to reform the liability of air carriers the 'Warsaw system' and fundamentally, to unify the liability system among the nations. The International Civil Aviation Organization(ICAO) will therefore reinforce its efforts to further promote a legal environment that adequately reflects the public interest and the needs of the parties involved. The ICAO Study Group met in April, 1998, together with the Drafting Committee. The time between the "Special Group on the Modernization and Consolidation of the 'Warsaw system'(SGMW)" and the Diplomatic Conference must be actively utilized to arrange for profound studies of the outstanding issues and for wide international consultations with a view to narrowing the scope of differences and preparing for a global international consensus. From 11 to 28 May 1999 the ICAO Headquarters at Montreal hosted a Diplomatic Conference convened to consider, with a view to adoption, a draft Convention intended to modernize and to integrate replace the instruments of the Warsaw system. The Council of ICAO convened this Conference under the Procedure for the Adoption of International Conventions. Some 525 participants from 121 Contracting States of ICAO attended, one non-contracting State, 11 observer delegations from international organizations, a total of 544 registered participants took part in the historic three-week conference which began on 10 May. The Conference was a success since it adopted a new Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air. The 1999 Montreal Convention, created and signed by representatives of 52 countries at an international conference convened by ICAO at Montreal on May 28, 1999, came into effect on November 4, 2003. Representatives of 30 countries have now formally ratified the Convention under their respective national procedures and ratification of the United States, which was the 30th country to ratify, took place on September 5, 2003. Under Article 53.6 of the Montreal Convention, it enters into force on the 60th day following the deposit of the 30th instrument of ratification or acceptation. The United States' ratification was deposited with ICAO on September 5, 2003. The ICAO have succeeded in modernizing and consolidating a 70-year old system of international instruments of private international law into one legal instrument that will provide, for years to come, an adequate level of compensation for those involved in international aircraft accidents. An international diplomatic conference on air law by ICAO of 1999 succeeded in adopting a new regime for air carrier liability, replacing the Warsaw Convention and five other related legal instruments with a single convention that provided for unlimited liability in relation to passengers. Victims of international air accidents and their families will be better protected and compensated under the new Montreal Convention, which modernizes and consolidates a seventy-five year old system of international instruments of private international law into one legal instrument. A major feature of the new legal instrument is the concept of unlimited liability. Whereas the Warsaw Convention set a limit of 125,000 Gold Francs (approximately US$ 8,300) in case of death or injury to passengers, the Montreal Convention introduces a two-tier system. The first tier includes strict liability up to l00,000 Special Drawing Rights (SDR: approximately US$ 135,000), irrespective of a carrier's fault. The second tier is based on presumption of fault of a carrier and has no limit of liability. The 1999 Montreal Convention also includes the following main elements; 1. In cases of aircraft accidents, air carriers are called upon to provide advance payments, without delay, to assist entitled persons in meeting immediate economic needs; the amount of this initial payment will be subject to national law and will be deductable from the final settlement; 2. Air carriers must submit proof of insurance, thereby ensuring the availability of financial resources in cases of automatic payments or litigation; 3. The legal action for damages resulting from the death or injury of a passenger may be filed in the country where, at the time of the accident, the passenger had his or her principal and permanent residence, subject to certain conditions. The new Montreal Convention of 1999 included the 5th jurisdiction - the place of residence of the claimant. The acceptance of the 5th jurisdiction is a diplomatic victory for the US and it can be realistically expected that claimants' lawyers will use every opportunity to file the claim in the US jurisdiction - it brings advantages in the liberal system of discovery, much wider scope of compensable non-economic damages than anywhere else in the world and the jury system prone to very generous awards. 4. The facilitation in the recovery of damages without the need for lengthy litigation, and simplification and modernization of documentation related to passengers. In developing this new Montreal Convention, we were able to reach a delicate balance between the needs and interests of all partners in international civil aviation, States, the travelling public, air carriers and the transport industry. Unlike the Warsaw Convention, the threshold of l00,000 SDR specified by the Montreal Convention, as well as remaining liability limits in relation to air passengers and delay, are subject to periodic review and may be revised once every five years. The primary aim of unification of private law as well as the new Montreal Convention is not only to remove or to minimize the conflict of laws but also to avoid conflict of jurisdictions. In order to find a rational solution to disputes between nations which have adopted differing liability systems in international air transport, we need fundamentally to reform their countries's domestic air law based on the new Montreal Convention. It is a desirable and necessary for us to ratify rapidly the new Montreal Convention by the contracting states of lCAO including the Republic of Korea. According to the Korean and Japanese ideas, airlines should not only pay compensation to passengers immediately after the accident, but also the so-called 'condolence' money to the next of kin. Condolence money is a gift to help a dead person's spirit in the hereafter : it is given on account of the grief and sorrow suffered by the next of kin, and it has risen considerably over the years. The total amount of the Korean and Japanese claims in the case of death is calculated on the basis of the loss of earned income, funeral expenses and material demage (baggage etc.), plus condolence money. The economic and social change will be occurred continuously after conclusion of the new Montreal Convention. In addition, the real value of life and human right will be enhanced substantially. The amount of compensation for damage caused by aircraft accident has increased in dollar amount as well as in volume. All air carrier's liability should extend to loss of expectation of leisure activities, as well as to damage to property, and mental and physical injuries. When victims are not satisfied with the amount of the compensation for damage caused by aircraft accident for which an airline corporation is liable under the current liability system. I also would like to propose my opinion that it is reasonable and necessary for us to interpret broadly the meaning of the bodily injury on Article 17 of the new Montreal Convention so as to be included the mental injury and condolence. Furthermore, Korea and Japan has not existed the Air Transport Act regulated the civil liability of air carrier such as Air Transport Act (Luftverkehrsgestz) in Germany. It is necessary for us to enact "the Korean Air Transport Contract Act (provisional title)" in order to regulate the civil liability of air carrier including the protection of the victims and injured persons caused by aircraft accident.

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