Conditions for lawful shooting down a civilian aircraft in light of Article 3bis (a) of the Chicago Convention

This study aims to review potential issues when applying Article 3bis (a) of the Chicago Convention. This provision sets a number of conditions that have to be fulfilled when using weapons against a civil aircraft in flight. The most controversial issue concerns the possible exception from the general prohibition of downing an aircraft pursuant to the UN Charter. There are some interpretative controversies linked to the possibility of invoking the right to self-defence by states (e.g., whether the state that is neutralizing the potentially rogue aircraft can act in anticipation of an armed attack) and these inaccuracies will be addressed by the author. All of these issues implicate the character of the prohibition enshrined in Article 3bis (a) as such and thus have a huge impact on states’ real abilities of protecting their people, for example in situations of terrorist threats.