From the 1784 French police directive requiring prior authorization for balloon flights to the complex international system of standards and recommended practices, certification and licensing that we have today under the Chicago Convention of 1944 and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), aviation law has progressed rapidly in line with advances of technology. Nevertheless, the basic principle of airspace sovereignty – by which each state has exclusive jurisdiction over the airspace above its territory – has remained the underlying foundation of national aviation legislation and international aviation agreements.

This book offers an extraordinary wealth of information, from the ground up, of the law governing and regulating air transport today, with a strong emphasis on international aviation. A team of distinguished authors in the field of aviation law provide a cogent synthesis from which sound legal opinions and strategies of legal action may be confidently built. Among the many topics here in depth are the following:

• definition and classification of airspace;
• distinction between civil and state aircraft;
• air navigation and air traffic control services;
• airport charges and overflight charges;
• structure of ICAO;
• standard-setting functions and audit functions of ICAO;
• functions of the International Air Transport Association (IATA);
• policy and effects of deregulation and liberalization of air transport policy;
• the International Registry for Aircraft Equipment;
• air carrier liability regimes and claims procedure;
• measures to combat aviation terrorism, air piracy and sabotage; and
• the Open Skies Agreements.

This publication cites significant legislation and court rulings, including from the United States and the European Union, where far-reaching measures on market access, competition and passenger rights have set trends for other regions of the world. The special case of Latin America has a chapter to itself. At a time when commercial aircraft have been used as lethal weapons for the first time, aviation law finds itself in the front line of responsibility for maintaining global aviation security.

For these and other reasons, this book will be of great value to the aviation law community, in particular the aviation law practitioner, airline lawyer, government regulator, and academic teacher and researcher of aviation law.

Features:

• Comprehensive overview of current global aviation law
• Detailed analysis of variations among US, EU and Latin American aviation law regimes
• Lucid synthesis of principles and practices characterizing aviation law from a global perspective

Benefits:

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• Confidently grasp the underlying principles that drive aviation law
• Gain a practical awareness of where US and EU aviation law agree and where they diverge
• Focus quickly on the specific provisions or precedents that apply best to a particular case