https://doi.org/10.56749/annales.elteajk.2021.lx.17.237
International law - once far removed from everyday life - has become part of it. One excellent example of this process is the rise of international air law, which has become increasingly important and familiar due to the tremendous development of civil aviation, including passenger and cargo transport. Today, international air law is a particular area of international law and forms a relatively novel and modern development from centuries-old maritime law, now forming a separate legal discipline.
This book is based on the author's deep aviation experience and on his international legal and diplomatic practice. It contains 100 legal cases and 31 illustrations, and its aim is to familiarise readers interested in aviation with air law. The illustrations are really useful in helping to understand the content of international legal norms. The book also aims to assist the work of aviation experts, as well as to enlarge the knowledge of legal academics, students and practitioners.
Attila Sipos's work analyses the most important rules of international air law, in particular the provisions of the Chicago Convention (1944) governing public law relations and the Montreal Convention (1999) governing private law relations.
The first part discusses the provisions of the Chicago Convention are, with special emphasis on sovereignty, the legal conditions of international and national airspace, permits for scheduled and non-scheduled flights and legal questions related to aircraft. The author does not always follow the structure of the Convention; he sheds light on the correlations among provisions that deal with the same topics, but are contained in different places in the text. He places the analysis of the intergovernmental legal norms in the context of the international reality behind them, and pays special attention to giving a clear explanation of public international law. The ICAO is one of the top international intergovernmental organisations, and a specialised agency of the United Nations. Its detailed operation and professional and diplomatic activities are discussed in depth in the first chapter. The author worked as a permanent representative on the Council of the ICAO (2004-2007), and gives an insight into his practical and diplomatic experience. The book also presents all the conventions related to aviation
- 237/238 -
security (e.g. Tokyo, The Hague, Montreal, New York, Beijing Conventions and the Beijing and Montreal Protocols).
The second part of the book presents the complex field of air carrier liability. The Montreal Convention (1999) is the most important international treaty of private law within international aviation law, and updates and replaces the regulatory system of the Warsaw Convention (1929), the aim of which is to create a unified liability regulatory system concerning harm caused to air passengers and consignors. The author examines the Montreal Convention through legal cases - from the submission of the statement of claim to the effective judgment - so than the reasons for the judgments and the conditions necessary for a successful claim become easier to understand. He explores the aspects emerging throughout the claim procedure, and the necessary and sufficient conditions that must coexist for damage claims to be satisfied based on the Montreal Convention.
The coronavirus epidemic has set back aviation and raised a number of questions for international air travel, and the book addresses these new thought-provoking legal issues.
International treaties are not only imprints of the times, documents reflecting the quality of international relations, but also, like drops in the sea, faithful reflections of the problems of life in the international community and of international law as a whole. Attila Sipos' book is good proof of this. The author links the analysis of interstate legal norms with the international realities behind them, and pays particular attention to a clear explanation of public international law as well as private international law rules. He does so without making the slightest concession in terms of depth of analysis.
Drawing extensively on primary sources - international conventions, judicial decisions and resolutions of international organizations, legal cases - the work guides the reader with a steady hand through the legal and regulatory world of international civil aviation.
Reading the book will encourage the reader to think through the dilemmas with the author, to formulate his or her own views, not only on the fundamental issues that are always coming to light, but also on practical problems. I would therefore recommend this work to the careful attention of not only interested university students but also of theoretical and practical lawyers and the wider community of aviation professionals, as has been the intention of the author.
Attila Sipos is a highly qualified, internationally renowned practitioner, who is also engaged in university teaching, and makes good use of his exceptional knowledge of the aviation industry, the UN International Civil Aviation Organization and the world of aviation diplomacy by providing a unique insight into the work and decision-making processes of the ICAO.
- 238/239 -
This work, which has attracted widespread attention, is now in its third edition - a real success in the field of Hungarian-language textbooks - and is presented to the interested reader in a substantially revised and expanded form and as an even more sophisticated version.
I hope this edition will be translated and published in English soon, as it is not difficult to foresee that it will then become a reference text for students and practitioners of aviation law worldwide. ■
Visszaugrás
