ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies early national legislation and court cases on aviation and discusses key events in international civil aviation. Prior to the formulation of an international treaty on civil aviation, numerous States and experts met to discuss how this emerging activity should be regulated. The growing number of aircraft and the realisation of aviation’s potential post-World War I highlighted the urgent need for some kind of international regulation for international civil aviation. As aviation transportation began to grow between Spain and South America, and with the failure of the United States, as well as several Central and South American States to join to the Paris Convention 1919, Spain invited Latin American and Caribbean States, and Portugal to the Ibero-American Conference. Importantly, the Paris Conference 1910 also demonstrated that the only practical legal method for the regulation of international civil aviation was via a multilateral treaty that detailed States’ rights and obligations in terms of the access to foreign airspace.
