International Agreements and Organizations — Page 28, Lesson 41

I want to walk you through the opening of the International Agreements and Organizations chapter, and we're starting with the Chicago Convention. This is the single most important legal foundation in all of air law, so let's build it properly from the ground up. First, the historical background. Civil aviation, as a mode of transport, has been the fastest growing and the most technically innovative of any. Think about the timeline here — from the first attempts at powered manned flight to regular space flight, we've only just exceeded 100 years of aviation. And we've had scheduled commercial air services since 1919. That's the key date to hold onto: 1919, the year scheduled commercial services began. Now, also in 1919, the first International Conference on Civil Aviation took place, in Paris. So from the very beginning of commercial aviation, the international community was already trying to regulate it. And here's the striking point: since then, the field of our chosen profession — aviation — has been subjected to far more international legislation and regulation than any other field. No other industry has this density of international law. Why? Because of an overriding need that everyone recognizes, regardless of political inclination: the need for higher and higher safety standards. That's the driving force. The degree of international cooperation in this respect is outstanding, and it shows that where there is a genuine desire to achieve international agreement, that agreement is forthcoming. So the lesson here is that safety is the universal motivator that overcomes political differences. Now let's move to the Second World War, because that's what directly shaped the Chicago Convention. The war had a major effect on the technical development of the aeroplane. Here's the striking statistic: it condensed a quarter of a century of normal peacetime development into just six years. Six years of war compressed 25 years of peacetime progress. That's how fast technology advanced under wartime pressure. The strategic use of aeroplanes for the movement of men and materiel — that's the military term for equipment and supplies — to and from theatres of war laid the foundation for the air transport industry we have today. So the wartime airlift capability became the template for commercial air transport. Now, at the end of the war, it was foreseen that a vast network of passenger and freight services would be set up. But many problems were also foreseen, and solutions had to be found to benefit and support a world subsequently at peace. Let me give you the two big problem areas that the excerpt raises. First, the question of commercial rights. What arrangements would be made for the airlines of one country to fly into, and through, the territories of another? That's the fundamental question of air traffic rights — who gets to fly where, over whose airspace, into whose airports. Second, there were other concerns with regard to the legal and economic aspects. The excerpt cuts off there, but you can see the shape of it: the legal framework and the economic framework both needed to be built from scratch. So here's where we are. We have a technology that advanced 25 years in six, we have a global network of routes about to be created, and we have no agreed system for commercial rights or legal and economic rules. That's the vacuum the Chicago Convention was created to fill. We'll pick up right there with how that convention actually came together.