Originially from: World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)

ADR and International Aviation Disputes Between States
by Dr. Vernon Nase
Lecturer in Law,
T.C. Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland (Australia)
The settlement of international aviation disputes generally takes
place under the multiple umbrellas of the Convention on International
Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention) and multilateral and bilateral
agreements between states, including bilateral air services agreements.
Maniatis observes:
Wherever a framework for trade exists, the
potential for conflict arises. In no other
industry is this assertion more obvious than
that of international transport by air, where
government regulation has traditionally been
severe and all encompassing and trade
relations are based on a web of bilateral
agreements rather than one homogenous
multilateral treaty.
Aviation disputes may be classified as either (1) commercial, that
is, arising out of the application and interpretation of bilateral agreements,
or (2) non-commercial, that is, arising between states and involving the
interpretation of obligations under the Chicago Convention. The purpose
of this Article is to explore recourse to Alternative or Additional Dispute
Resolution techniques in aviation disputes between states.
I. Role of the United States in
Liberalising the Marketplace
In analyzing this topic, it is not possible to ignore the role of the
United States, the largest world aviation market, if only because of its
dominance in the marketplace and its capacity to exert unilateral pressure
on other states.
Prior to 1970, aviation disputes were relatively few and far
between. During the first thirty years of international aviation, the
aviation industry, both domestically and internationally, was subsidized
and regulated to such a degree that disputes rarely occurred. Several
pieces of legislation in the 1970s successfully deregulated their domestic
aviation market and prompted the United States to seek deregulation
internationally.