Fwd: IS AIR LAW INTERNATIONAL? Release of a new book
Chandana Liyanapatabendy
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2025 at 18:40
Subject: IS AIR LAW INTERNATIONAL? Release of a new book
To: <tissa.a...@bell.net>
I am pleased to announce the release of my latest book, Is Air Law International? Perspectives from Practice and Global Regulation, details of which can be accessed at https://ethicspress.com/products/is-air-law-international
To ask whether air law is international is to explore a paradox between the limitless skies of cooperation and the firm boundaries of sovereignty. Rooted in the Chicago Convention of 1944 and the Montreal Convention of 1999, air law aspires to global uniformity through the framework of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Yet, provisions such as Articles 12 and 38 of the Chicago Convention remind us that every aircraft, when over the territory of a State, remains subject to that State’s laws, and that States may deviate from international standards when necessary.
Drawing upon Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, this book reveals that while treaties and custom form the foundation of air law, its true application depends on national will and interpretation. Thus, air law is international in aspiration but domestic in execution—born of consensus rather than compulsion.
In this book, I discuss in depth the views expressed by member States of ICAO at the Organization’s 42nd Assembly held in 2025 and conclude that the strength of air law lies not in its universality but in the trust and cooperation among sovereign States. It is a law that unites nations above borders, even as it remains anchored in sovereignty.
Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne DCL, PhD, LL.M, LLB, FRAeS, FCILT
Senior Associate, Aviation Law and Policy
Aviation Strategies International
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