LEGAL BASES OF INTERNATIONAL AIR NAVIGATION, 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF CHICAGO CONVENTION

The paper concentrates on the origins of the 1944 Chicago Convention of International Civil Aviation, which on December 7, 2004 celebrated its 60th anniversary. The convention describing the principles of international air aviation is the oldest convention in the aviation world, which has survived 60 years practically unchanged. It sounds exceptional in the face of dynamically developing aviation and its surroundings. As early as in 1919 with its Paris Convention an important compromise was reached between two basic theories in aviation law (one stated that every country has a sovereign right to its aviation territory; the other assumed that the aviation territory should not be restricted and air navigation should be entirely free). The Chicago Convention, often criticized for its fossilized structure and bad adaptation to the realities of aviation market played an important role in the development of aviation between 1944-2004. Benefiting from Paris Convention, it established norms for the most crucial issues connected with air navigation such as: flight over a foreign state, state ownership of aircraft, measures to enable air navigation, conditions concerning the use of aircraft such as: documents, equipment of aircraft or capability of flight. The Chicago Convention, however, is far from being perfect and its criticism, especially concerning the fact that it allows a wide interpretation is not groundless. Consequently, it seems reasonable that a new convention should be prepared by a group of experts in cooperation with member states and organizations cooperating with the UNO.