Are you in or out? The impact of declarations under the Cape Town convention / aircraft protocol on achieving global legal uniformity of aircraft financing law

The Cape Town Convention and its Aircraft Protocol have begun a revolution in aircraft financing law. These international instruments propose to bring uniformity to a very disparate and uneven smorgasbord of laws and practices in the realm of aviation finance. These treaties are built on a system of authorized declarations where States can adapt the Convention and Protocol to their legal and social customs. Twenty-one (21) States have already ratified them and made their declarations. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the "opt-in opt-out" system has undermined the proposed uniformity. An overview of the text of the Convention and Protocol and an analysis of the current declarations made by Contracting States is utilized in order to reach the proposed objective. The results show that although the Cape Town Convention and Aircraft Protocol are still new instruments of international law, States have not created, either on a textual or results oriented basis, a uniform environment. This study is the first to analyse the actual declarations made by Ratifying States and their impact on global aviation financing law.