ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the various sources from which international aviation law have derived. International law has been described as a body of legal rules which apply between 'sovereign' states and such entities that have been granted international legal personality, such as international organizations. The chapter shows that international aviation law has both a public and private component, draws upon the domestic aviation law of individual states. The chapter provides definitions of the terms air law and aviation law. It has been suggested that aviation is 'no less a science in itself, whose autonomy requires that it be presented separately from other closely related sciences'. The Paris Convention defined the status of international airspace and gave authority to each individual operating an aircraft to act in accordance with the law of the state of registration.
