International legal instruments before ICAO
Although the first piece of air law, a
police directive, was enacted in 1784 at the time of balloon flights, it is
only with the technical development in aviation that air law saw its actual need
for expansion. The legal framework for air law quickly transcended national
boundaries with the international carriage by air. Therefore, two types of
agreements were developed: the conventions of private law (concerning the
relationship between private parties), the conventions of public law (involving
inter-State relations). The need for uniform international law had encouraged
States to the dialogue, and it is with the Paris International Conference in
1925 that an International Technical Committee of Legal Experts Air was
established.
At the
initiative of the French Government, the First International Conference on Private Air Law was convened in Paris from 27 October to 6
November 1925 to examine the question
of liability of the airlines and to undertake the immense work of coding the
private air law; the final protocol of this Conference asked for the creation
of a special committee of experts (called Comité International Technique d'Experts Juridiques Aériens, C.I.T.E.J.A.) in charge of the continuation
of the work of the Conference. Seventy-seven delegates from 48 States
attended this Conference. Dr. Albert Roper, the Secretary General of the International
Commission on Air Navigation (ICAN), was the Secretary of the Conference.
With its
seat at Paris, the C.I.T.E.J.A. composed of experts nominated by States but
acting in their personal capacity, made a considerable contribution to the
codification of private air law and carried on the work between the general
conferences. CITEJA held its first session at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
at Paris in May 1926, with twenty-eight countries participating. Its initial
working schedule covered the establishment of a program dealing with subjects
pertaining to private air law to be studied by
commissions of experts, preparation of texts of international conventions on
legal subjects for consideration at periodic International Conferences on
Private Air Law, and maintenance of the principle of the progressive
elaboration of a single international code of private air law.
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Front
page of the Warsaw Convention - 1929 |
Attended by delegates from thirty-three nations, the
Second International Conference on
Private Air Law met in
Warsaw, Poland, from 4 to 12 October 1929; it approved the Warsaw Convention formally entitled Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to
International Carriage by Air, which was signed by 23 States on 12 October
1929. This convention established the international liability for air carriers
and the monetary limits for damage, delay and loss. At that time, the
convention was a major contribution to the unification of international aviation law, as most airlines were government-owned and the
aviation industry was in its early years struggling to compete with the rail
and shipping industries. The liability limits for air carries were capped at
limits that were appropriate for that era and for an infant industry. This
convention became soon the widest accepted unification of air law. The
convention of 1929 came into force on 13 February 1933.
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The Third
International Conference on Private Air
Law met at the Accademia dei Lincei,
Palazzo Corsini, Rome, Italy
from 15 to 29 May 1933. This conference adopted two conventions, as follows:
- The Convention for the
Unification of Certain Rules Relating to Damage Caused by Foreign Aircraft
to Third Parties on the Surface;
- The Convention for the
Unification of Certain Rules Relating to the Preventive Seizure of Aircraft.
Both conventions were signed on 29 May 1933 by 20 States. The purpose of
these conventions were to ensure adequate compensation for persons who suffer
damage caused on the surface by foreign aircraft while limiting in a reasonable
manner the extent of liabilities incurred for such damage in order not to
hinder the development of international air transport.
The Fourth
International Conference on Private Air
Law met at the Palais des Académies, Brussels,
Belgium from 19 to 30 September 1938. The conference adopted the following:
1. An Additional Protocol related to the Rome Convention for the
Unification of Certain Rules Relating to Damage Caused by Foreign Aircraft to
Third Parties on the Surface signed on 29 May 1933, which permitted insurers to
use some basic defences. Both were superseded by the 1952 Rome Convention on the same subject.
2. The Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to the Assistance
and Rescue of Aircraft or by Aircraft at Sea.
The budget for this Conference was estimated by the Belgian
Government at 125,000frs.
The war interrupted further development of the international
unification of private air law. The C.I.T.E.J.A. held its last
working meeting in Cairo in 1946, where it recommended that a Committee on
International Air Law be established within ICAO. The 1st Session of
the ICAO Assembly, held in Montreal in
May 1947, adopted Resolution A1-46 creating the Legal Committee as permanent body replacing the C.I.T.E.J.A..
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Italy – 26 March 2003 Maximum card issued for the 400th
anniversary of the Accademia dei Lincei, where the Third International Conference on Private Air Law was held in 1933. It
is located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della
Lungara in Rome, Italy. The symbol of the Academy is
a lynx famed for its sharp eyes. Founded in 1603, this science academy was later
renamed Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. |
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Postcard showing the Palais des Académies at Brussels, where the Fourth International Conference on Private Air Law was held in 1938. |
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Italy - 29 September 1952 1st
Diplomatic Conference on International Air Law held in Rome (from 9 September
to 6 October 1952), which adopted a new Convention on Damage Caused by
Foreign Aircraft to Third Parties on the Surface, thus replacing the
Convention on the same subject adopted in 1933 and amended in 1938. |
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