Research On The Legal Nature Of The Right To Use Airport Slots

In December 2015,the pilot auction conducted in Guangzhou Baiyun Airport regarding the "golden moment",and the experiments draw afterwards conducted in Shanghai Pudong Airport,pushed the issue of airport slot at the peak.The nature of the right to use the airport slots becomes the most important issue,which also consists the legal basis and legality for transaction of airport slots,as well as the crucial factor in deciding the system to adjust the arrangement of airport slots.However,it is a controversial problem in both practice and theory,relating to Priority,Usufruct,administrative license,etc.Notably,the aforesaid problem is not stipulated in the Aviation Law or any other regulations in China.This paper seeks to solve the following questions: how to distinguish the definitions between airport slots and right to use airport slots? What is the nature of the object of the right to use airport slots and how to obtain it? Furthermore this paper will introduce several doctrines and relative considerations of the nature of the right to use airport slots.Based on the aforesaid results,this paper will put forward some views on the legal nature in accordance with the future trend of laws and regulations.And this paper is divided into the following four parts:Chapter One will focus on the nature of the object of the right to use airport slots and list the exploration of the elements and the source of the definition.Chapter Two will discuss several basic legal problems including the practical and theoretical distinction between airport slots and the right to use airport slots,the practical situation in the US,EU and China,and several doctrines of the legal nature of the right of use.Chapter Three will analyze the nature of the Usufruct to see if the right to use airport slots can be defined as the Usufruct.Combined with the legal practice in China,this part comes up with the idea that it is hard to define the right to use airport slots as a Usufruct currently in China.Chapter Four will try to analyze the nature of the administrative license,aiming at exploring the nature of the right to use airport slots.There are some government jurisdictions clearly stipulate the right to use airport slots as an administrative license.However the situation in China is different and certain reasons will be explained in this part.With the development of the civil law,it would probably become possible to classify the right to use airport slot into the legal system of Usufruct.