International regulation : old news or game changer?

There is no one more mundane than an airline passenger. Air travel by its very nature is international and so is the law that governs air traffic. The basic rules are contained in the Chicago Convention, a Treaty originally concluded in 1944 and presently covering nearly all air traffic around the globe. The Chicago Convention established the rules of airspace, aircraft registration and safety, and details the rights of the states and their citizens in relation to air travel and it also established the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN organisation put in place to foster the legal framework of the Convention. The ICAO Council for instance adopts standards and recommended practices concerning air navigation, on prevention of unlawful interference, and facilitation of border-crossing procedures for international civil aviation. In addition, the ICAO defines the protocols for air accident investigation followed by transport safety authorities in Chicago Convention member state countries. But this is only the top of the iceberg of the complex body of law that applies to air travel. There is international law on landing rights held in multilateral treaties but also in domestic law, safety requirements on aircraft, vocational requirements of staff and pilots, use of installations, rules on liability and consumer protection of passengers (passenger rights), equally divided over international and domestic law. There is also a regional element. In the European Union for instance the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is the centrepiece of the European Union's aviation safety system comprised of the Agency, the European Commission and the National Aviation Authorities. The Agency develops common safety and environmental rules. It monitors the implementation of standards through inspections in the Member States and provides the necessary technical expertise and training to the system. In the Netherlands alone, the law on air travel consists of a dazzling maze of some 12 International Treaties and 72 domestic regulatory Acts (most of them implementing international law ) – on a very conservative count, disregarding the EU regulations in the field.