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The Principle Of Banning The Use Of Force Against Civil Aircraft: International Law Issues

Posted on:2014-10-06Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:X B WenFull Text:PDF
GTID:2256330401990617Subject:International Law
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Ensuring the flight safety of civil aircraft relates to not only the smooth developmentof civil aviation industry, but also aircraft safety and lives and property of passengers.However, the air crashes caused by various reasons always threaten the safety of civilaviation. Among all the air crashes, the most serious is to use force against civil aircraft.Although the international law has clearly required that every country must ensure the freemovement and security of transit flights, since the1950s, it is numerous to mention theshoot-down events of civil aircraft. Protecting passengers and maintaining the order of civilaviation require every country to be clear about their responsibility for the use of forceagainst civil aircraft, seeking for the best relief way to make up for the injured parties.The International Civil Aviation Convention (Chicago Convention for short) prohibitsthe use of force against civil aircraft, which has become a basic principle of internationallaw. However, the prohibition of the use of force has two exceptions. Firstly, use of forcebased on the airspace sovereignty. In this paper the use of force for protecting the airspaceshould be at the very moment. Besides, it must be noted that destroying the invadingaircraft that will not cause a substantial threat also violates the international law. Secondly,use of force for self-defense. The Charter of the United Nations stipulates that countries areallowed to exercise the right of self-defense as it is an inherent right of countries. Theexercise of self-defense right must meet the conditions prescribed by the Charter, andcomply with the principles of necessity and proportionality. Airspace protection andself-defense right, as an exception of the use of force, will not be considered as illegal actsand do not need to shoulder the international legal responsibility. Unlawful use of forceagainst civil aircraft, such as the national staff mistake the civil aircraft for state aircraft touse force, or a country deliberately shoots down the invading civil aircraft and so on,violates the basic principles of international law that prohibits the use of force against civilaircraft. It is an illegal act in international law and the country should bear the internationallegal responsibility.Investigating the national legal responsibility aims to safeguard the legitimate rightsand interests of the injured party. Therefore, it is very necessary to explore and analyzedifferent relief methods in order to arrive at this goal. There are many relief methods,including submitting a case to court after diplomatic negotiations and consultations, orinternational arbitrations. When being put into practice, different methods are often used at the same time, among which, the most commonly used is diplomatic negotiations andconsultations. Comparatively these and applying for international arbitrations aretime-consuming and expensive, but always able to resolve the disputes peacefully andavoid upgrading of conflicts. The court judgment is more binding. In conclusion, throughanalyzing and comparing different relief methods, the injured party may adopt the mostappropriate one based on the specific circumstance to protect their rights and interests.
Keywords/Search Tags:Civil Aircraft, Use of Force, International Responsibility, Relief
PDF Full Text Request
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