A Study Of ICAO’s Rules For Solving International Civil Aviation Disputes

Civil aviation has a natural international character,and national disputes in the field of civil aviation also occur from time to time.It is of great significance for the stability of international aviation legal order that ICAO uses relevant rules to solve international civil aviation disputes.The peaceful settlement of international disputes is a basic principle of modern international law.In July 2020,the International Court of justice made a judgment on the appeal case of Qatar,and the discussion on how to solve the international civil aviation dispute resumed.The international legal documents used by the Council of ICAO to settle international civil aviation disputes include the Convention on international civil aviation and the rules of procedure for the settlement of differences between contracting states of the Council of ICAO.The specific rules of international civil aviation dispute settlement are negotiation rules,mediation rules,award rules,arbitration rules,Appeal Rules and punishment rules.These rules play an important role in the settlement of aviation disputes between countries.However,after several years of practice,these rules also highlight some shortcomings.As the main body of dispute settlement adjudication of ICAO,the representatives of contracting states are controversial because most of them are not judicial professional and neutral.According to the dispute settlement rules,ICAC only deals with the issues related to the interpretation and application of the Convention on international civil aviation and its annex,resulting in a limited scope of matters to be dealt with,and disputes over jurisdictional objection frequently occur in practice.Prior to submission to the Council of ICAO for adjudication,it is necessary to perform the obligation of consultation,but there is no clear applicable standard.In addition,the decisions made by the Council of ICAO are not standardized.In order to solve the above problems,it is necessary to update the existing international civil aviation dispute settlement rules to make them play a more substantive and useful value.It is suggested that in the revision of the procedural rules for the settlement of differences between Contracting States,a dispute committee should be set up under the Council of ICAO as the subject of dispute adjudication,so as to promote the impartiality of the Council’s adjudication.In order to solve the problem that the preconditions of negotiation are not clear enough,the "minimum possibility" standard should be defined as the performance standard of negotiation obligation.When the Council of ICAO decides on a specific dispute,it requires the members of the Council to give reasons for the decision and to increase the time limit for the decision of the Council of ICAO.