A Comparative Study Of Legislation On Air Passenger’s Right To Know Between China And The United States

The right to know is a basic human right,which gives citizens the rights to know related information.In today’s information society,the right to know plays an increasingly important role.Generally,the right to know is divided into the right to know in a broad sense and the right to know in a narrow sense.The right to know in a broad sense mainly refers to the right of the relevant subject to ask the government or other institutions,organizations and citizens to disclose relevant information related to their own interests,while the right to know in a narrow sense mainly refers to the right of relevant subjects to request the state organs to disclose relevant information according to law.In this sense,what we usually call the right to know that consumers enjoy is the right to know in a broad sense.As one of the basic rights enjoyed by consumers,the consumer’s right to know is of great significance.Before making a decision to buy a commodity or service,the consumer is bound to have a thorough understanding of the basic information of the product in order to know whether the item is the goods or service it really wants to buy,and then make a decision on whether to buy it or not.The understanding of commodity or service information is helpful to reduce all kinds of contradictions caused by the imbalance of information between operators and consumers,and to promote the healthy and harmoniousdevelopment of market economy.As a special group of consumers,air passengers certainly enjoy the right to know the relevant information about goods under the laws.However,in the face of the current growing civil aviation industry,more and more data show that air passenger’s right to know is violated because the imbalance information between airline company and traveler.It is also one of the important causes of conflict between airlines and passengers.In air transport,the right of air passengers to know exists in the whole process of air passenger transport.During the contract formation stage,air passengers have the right to know the fare,flight location,check-in time,ticket validity,contract format terms,ticket tie-in information and flight code sharing information.In the performance phase of the contract,passengers have the right to know the flight delay,cancellation,flight fare,date,class change status,the reasons for the flight’s failure to take off on time,the standard of passenger baggage weight,the solution to the loss of damage,etc.After the termination of the contract,passengers have the right to know the use of their identity information,the results of passenger complaints,etc.The protection of aviation passenger’s right to know is an inevitable trend of social development,and it is also important for constructing a harmonious and friendly civil aviation transportation environment.However,at present,due to the late start of air transport in China,the legal provisions on the protection of air passenger rights and interests are not sound enough.The provisions on the right to know of air passengers are not comprehensive enough,and without strong maneuverability,which is very detrimental to the protection of rights of air passengers in China.On the contrary,the United States law attaches great importance to air passenger’s right to know.It published a number of bills that specifically provide for the right of passengers to know,including the Aviation Consumer Right to Know Act,the Aviation Consumer Notices Act and the Air Passenger Fair Treatment Act.In addition,in the relevant parts of the United States Code and the United States federal regulations,the right of passengers to know is also explicitly required.These bills notonly regulate the content of air passenger’s right to know,it also stipulate the punitive measures of the air carrier after violating the regulations.The comprehensiveness and accuracy about the protection of air passenger’s right to know may offer a good reference to improve China’s legislation.Based on this idea,this paper is divided into three parts.The first part begins with an overview of the air passenger’s right to know.It analyzes the background and connotation of the protection of the aviation passenger’s right to know,and clarifies the proper meaning of the air passenger’s right to know through the analysis of the relevant concepts of the consumer’s right to know and the air passenger’s right to know,which may lay a foundation for the concrete research after.The second part is the specific analysis of the provisions on the right of air passengers to know.This part mainly selects the price disclosure,the code sharing,the flight delay and the air ticket oversold,the four typical aspects where the air passenger right to know may be violated,takes cases as the entry point,specifically compares the relevant legislation of China and the United States on the passenger’s right to know in these matters,sums up the differences exist in the legislation of air passenger right to know between China and the United States in a variety of circumstances,finally generalizes the characteristics of the United States’ legislation about the passenger’s right to know.The third part is the deficiency and perfection part.According to the comparison of the previous chapter,this chapter analyzes the specific shortcomings in the provisions on the right to know of air passengers in China,and puts forward corresponding suggestions for improvement to perfect the protection system of air passenger rights.