Treaties and International Civil. Aviation Organizations

he concept of international air transportation emerged almost immediately with powered flight itself. Flight in lighter-than-air craft had been an international affair from the start. As the reality of powered flight neared, activity in both North America and Europe proceeded simulta­neously. After the Wright brothers’ success in 1903, Europeans immediately followed, develop­ing their own brands and models of airplanes.

International flight in heavier-than-air machines first occurred on July 25, 1909, when Louis Bleriot flew his monoplane across the Eng­lish Channel from France to England. William Boeing was carrying airmail between Seattle and Vancouver in his Boeing В-IE seaplane in 1919 under agreement with both the United States and Canada. The International Air Traffic Association was organized in 1919 by six Euro­pean air transport companies. It was obvious that mere boundaries could not contain the airplane and those who would use it in commerce. Still, under international law, borders could not be transcended with impunity, and it was clear early on that some kind of structure would have to be put in place to deal with the interaction between peoples of different cultures and different laws.

International Aviation Relations

Beginning in 1910 in Paris, international con­ferences between nations, attended by their appointed representatives, convened for the pur­pose of discussing and resolving issues related to international civil aviation. Representatives from 19 European countries assembled that year in a meeting, now known as the Paris Confer­ence, to consider the legal and practical requisites for international air commerce. Although little was immediately accomplished, a start had been made, and much of the work of that first confer­ence resurfaced in the conferences of the future.

It is important to note the international legal distinction between the words conference and convention. A convention, as used in interna­tional civil aviation, means an agreement between nations, not yet rising to the status of a treaty, the latter of which only occurs upon ratification by the signatory nations. The word conference is used to describe the assembly or gathering where a convention might be agreed on. A protocol is a major amendment to the regulations of the con­vention. An amendment is a minor change in the regulations enforced by the convention.

In 1919, after World War I, representa­tives of the victorious nations, as well as Brazil and Cuba, adopted the Paris Convention, which established for the first time several important foundations for civil aviation. First, the Conven­tion recognized that each nation has sovereignty over its own airspace, including its territories and colonies. Second, it followed the maritime law principle that each aircraft must have a national registration. Third, it established certain basic rules regarding the airworthiness of aircraft. Fourth, it adopted rules regarding the certifica­tion of pilots. Although the United States signed the Convention, it was not ratified. It would, however, become a model for the later enactment of statutes in the United States regarding the same subject matters.

In 1926, representatives from countries left out of the Paris meeting in 1919 adopted the Madrid Convention, which basically was the same agreement adopted in Paris in 1919. This agreement would have no substantial effect on later agreements in the field of civil aviation.

The Havana Convention of 1928 was an agreement between nations of the Western Hemi­sphere, and grew out of the Pan American Con­ference held in Santiago, Chile, in 1923. The provisions of this Convention were similar to those of the Paris Convention, but due to varia­tions between the two, this Convention caused some commercial and operating uncertainties in the international community until the differences were finally resolved in 1944 at the Chicago Convention.