Legal Priorities in Air Transport

315 Pages·2019·2.87 MB·English

by  Ruwantissa Abeyratne

Ruwantissa Abeyratne
Legal
Priorities in
Air Transport
Legal Priorities in Air Transport
Ruwantissa Abeyratne
Legal Priorities
in Air Transport
Ruwantissa Abeyratne
Aviation Strategies International
Montreal, QC, Canada
ISBN 978-3-030-18390-5 ISBN 978-3-030-18391-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18391-2
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Preface
Legal issues in air transport are steadily transforming themselves as the world
evolves, although those responsible for addressing the issues have not made much
attempt so far to adapt to the nuances presented by these issues. It is for this reason
that the first priority in air transport law is its dissemination to as wide an audience
in the aviation profession as possible. In this context, the first issue is the need to
step up the teaching of air law in tertiary legal academic institutions as both a stand-
alone discipline and a robust supplement to international law and international rela-
tions. Until recently, no serious attempt was made by the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) to teach the subject despite a long-standing ICAO Assembly
Resolution calling for its active involvement in this regard. What is offered by ICAO
now is a half-hearted shell of a course which focuses mainly on what ICAO is and
what ICAO does with no up-to-date developments of case law in public and private
international air law. There are only a handful of law schools around the world that
teach the subject, notwithstanding that it has been of the utmost relevance to the
world since the start of commercial aviation in the early twentieth century and in
particular for 70 years since the advent of the Convention on International Civil
Aviation which was signed at Chicago by States on 7 December 1944.
The second issue is the need for a good understanding of what ICAO is. The
Council of ICAO itself has meandered its way through the meaning, purpose, and
functions of the organization. Chapter 2 of this book addresses pertinent issues in
this regard.
As for current legal issues, the subjects dealt with by ICAO, as Chap. 3 of this
book shows, do not accord with the realities of rapidly changing exigencies of air
transport. In this regard, certain recommendations are made in this book. This not-
withstanding, and in fairness to ICAO, it must be noted that the organization has
made some positive contributions with regard to the humanitarian aspects of air
transport as well as global warming caused by climate change and the legal and
economic aspects of addressing aircraft engine emissions which are addressed in
chapters to follow.
This book discusses legal nuances and implications pertaining to cybercrime that
may affect air transport as well as the need to consider the impact of artificial
v
vi Preface
intelligence (AI) on the industry. There is a separate chapter on traveller identity and
biometric identification as well as the implications to international civil aviation of
remotely piloted aircraft systems. Additionally, there are chapters on interference
with air navigation, human trafficking, the unruly passenger, climate change, air
carrier liability for death or injury to the passenger, and cabin crew.
At the present time, the main focus of legal considerations in air transport should
be on the incontrovertible fact that we are living in a networked world of connectiv-
ity that depends on digital platforms. Air transport cannot be excluded from this
inevitable equation. Therefore, some of the more important legal issues that emerge
are cybercrime and air transport and the management of artificial intelligence by air
transport enterprises as well as the overall legal aspects of management of air trans-
port in a transformative world.
Are companies better at managing risks, especially in the context of their use of
AI? Tom Standage, in the Economist The World in 2019, says of AI: “as it is applied
in a growing number of areas, there are legitimate concerns about possible unin-
tended consequences … the immediate concern is that the scramble to amass the
data needed to train AI systems is infringing on people’s privacy”. He cites the
General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union as a positive step in
handing back control of personal data to the owner of the data and the right of the
owner to demand of user companies relevant information of usage. However,
Standage argues that the answer to regulating AI is not to introduce new legislation
to manage AI but rather to adapt existing privacy and discrimination legislation to
take AI into account and address the issues that might emerge.
Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion who defeated the AI computer
Deep Blue in 1996 but was later defeated by the computer, writes in Encyclopaedia
Britannica Yearbook of 2018: “Humans will still set the goals and establish the pri-
orities. We must ensure that our agnostic machines represent the best of our human
morality. If we succeed, our new tools will make us smarter, enabling us to better
understand our world and ourselves. Our real challenge is to avoid complacency, to
keep thinking up new directions for AI to explore. And that’s one job that can never
be done by a machine”.
Thomas H.  Davenport and Ranjeev Ronanki, writing in the Definitive
Management Ideas of the Year From the Harvard Business Review 2019, recom-
mend that companies shift their focus from AI “moonshots” such as AI systems that
could diagnose and recommend treatment for cancer using such machines as IBM’s
Watson to concentrating on less ambitious projects such as staff IT problems and
hotel reservations and in particular in three main areas: automating business pro-
cesses, gaining insight through data analysis, and engaging with customers and
employees. Furthermore, the authors suggest that companies use AI to enhance
products, make better decisions, create new products, optimize internal business
operations, pursue new markets (in other words, engage in disruptive innovation),
capture and apply scarce knowledge as the need arises, optimize external processes
such as marketing and sales, and reduce head count through automation.
Managing AI would be a critical issue in 2019 if only to enable companies to keep
a check on AI. Harvard Business Review cites some concerns where humans
Preface vii
would not comprehend how a machine reached a conclusion. They are: hidden biases
cultivated by the machine through the learning process; since machines are mostly
neural networks that work with statistical data, it would be difficult to think that the
solutions given by a machine would work in every case, particularly where there are
variables and random circumstances, and when a machine error occurs, it would be
difficult to correct the error for the first concern cited—that humans may not under-
stand how the machine came to its conclusion.
Eleonore Pauwels, Research Fellow on Emerging Cybertechnologies at United
Nations University (UNU), says about AI: “AI is already ubiquitous, but will affect
people differently, depending on where they live, how much they earn, and what
they do for a living. Scholars from civil society have started raising concerns about
how algorithmic tools could increasingly profile, police, and even punish the poor.
On the global and political stage, where corporations and states interact, AI will
influence how these actors set the rules of the game. It will shape how they admin-
ister and exert power on our societies’ collective body. These new forms of control
raise urgent policy challenges for the international community”.
At a United Nations conference on AI in 2017, U.N. Secretary General Antonio
Guterres said: “Artificial Intelligence has the potential to accelerate progress towards
a dignified life, in peace and prosperity, for all people…the time has arrived for all
of us – governments, industry and civil society – to consider how artificial intelli-
gence will affect our future”.
It may be a good start to commence composing a new “civilizational story line”
as suggested by Julie Friedman Steele, Board Chair and CEO of the World Future
Society. She says: “We must be socially, psychologically and existentially prepared.
We must consciously evolve and be able to see outside of ourselves. We must, in
other words, cultivate a futurist mind set and become futurist citizens. This will be
our greatest achievement”.
This is the story of transformation that this book seeks to unravel.
Montreal, QC, Canada Ruwantissa Abeyratne
April 2019
Contents
1 Importance of Teaching Air Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Why Air Law? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.1 Public International Air Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 Private International Air Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.2 Comparative Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 The Legal Status of ICAO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 The Qatar Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 What Is ICAO? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3 Legal and Regulatory Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.4 T he Issue of Sovereignty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.5 S hould ICAO’s Aims and Objectives Be Extended to Include
Domestic Aviation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.6 C oncluding Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3 Legal Priorities of ICAO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2 Remotely Piloted Aircraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.3 Article 21 of the Chicago Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.4 Conflicts of Interest (COI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.5 Safety Aspects of Economic Liberalization of Article 83 bis . . . . 35
3.6 Acts or Offences of Concern to the International Aviation
Community and Not Covered by Existing Air Law
Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.7 Consideration, with Regard to CNS/ATM Systems Including
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), and the Regional
Multinational Organisms, of the Establishment of a Legal
Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.8 Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
ix
x Contents
4 A Closer Look at Conflicts of Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2 Assembly Resolution A 39-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2.1 The Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2.2 Issues Arising from the Text: Self Imposed Limits . . . . . 45
4.2.3 ICAO Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.3 L egal Issues: The Revolving Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.4 C onclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5 H uman Trafficking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.1 C ircular 352 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.2 Other Regulatory Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.3 Perspectives in Humanitarian Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.3.1 United Nations Convention Against Transnational
Organized Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.3.2 The Palermo Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.4 United Nations Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.5 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6 Carrier Liability for Death or Injury: A Comparison. . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.2 Liability Principles of Maritime Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.2.1 T reaty Provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.2.2 Judicial Decisions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.3 Principles of Liability at Air Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.3.1 Treaty Provisions: The Warsaw and Montreal
Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.3.2 General Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.3.3 Defences Available to the Airlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.3.4 Relevance of Accident to the Illness of the Passenger . . . 86
6.3.5 Wilful Misconduct of the Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.3.6 Judicial Decisions on Wilful Misconduct . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.3.7 A ccident in Air Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.3.8 E mbarking and Disembarking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6.4 C oncluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
7 T he Unruly Passenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
7.1 R egulatory Work of ICAO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.2 Legal Work of ICAO and the ICAO Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.3 Work of IATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
7.4 Concluding Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Contents xi
8 Cabin Crew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
8.1.1 Who Is a Cabin Crew Member? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
8.1.2 Some Anomalies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
8.2 Legal Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
8.3 Regulatory Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
8.4 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
9 Interference with Air Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
9.2 Nature of Electromagnetic Interference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
9.3 Regulatory Issues Under ICAO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
9.4 Treaty Provisions and Other Legal Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
9.5 C oncluding Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
10 T he Climate Change Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
10.2 Implementing ICAO’S CORSIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
10.3 The ICAO Annex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
10.4 The Carbon Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
10.5 A Carbon Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
10.5.1 What Is an Environmental Tax? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
10.5.2 Arguments in Favour of a Carbon Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
10.6 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
11 Regulating Cyber Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
11.2 ICAO Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
11.3 United Nations Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
11.4 State Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
11.4.1 T he Effect on Air Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
11.5 The Budapest Convention on Cyber Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
11.6 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
12 Regulating Artificial Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
12.1.1 Emotional Intelligence and the Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
12.1.2 The Organizational Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
12.1.3 A ir Transport and the Dangers of Artificial
Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
12.1.4 E thical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
12.1.5 L egal Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
12.2 Artificial Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211