Abstract
Firstly, any academic treatment of air law and policy should recognize that air law and space law are closely inter-related in some areas and that both these disciplines have to be viewed in the 21st century within the changing face of international law and politics. Both air law and space law are disciplines that are grounded on principles of public international law, which is increasingly becoming different from what it was a few decades ago. We no longer think of this area of the law as a set of fixed rules, even if such rules have always been a snapshot of the law as it stands at a given moment. Fundamentally, and at its core, international law was considered in simple terms as the law binding upon States in their relations with one another.1 A definition of international law was first given by the Provisional International Court of Justice in 1927 in the celebrated Lotus case when the World Court said:
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Notes
- 1.
Jennings (1990), p. 513.
- 2.
(1927) P.C.I.J. Ser. A, No. 9, p. 18.
- 3.
International law itself is divided into private and public international law, the former being also referred to as conflict of laws and the latter just termed International law. See Shaw (2003), p. 1.
- 4.
Jennings (1990), p. 521.
- 5.
See Article 10 and 11(1) of the United Nations Charter, which alludes to the General Assembly making recommendations to the member States. Also, Johnson (1955–1956), p. 97.
- 6.
See Article 36(2) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, which calls for States Parties to the Statute to declare consensually that they recognize the jurisdiction of the Court.
- 7.
[1989] 3. W.L.R. 969 (H.L).
- 8.
[1989] 3. W.L.R. 969 (H.L) at p. 1014.
- 9.
Lowe (2003), pp. 859–871 at 859.
- 10.
Arend (1999), p. 26.
- 11.
Higgins (1999), p. 1.
- 12.
Bull (1977), p. 128.
- 13.
Freidman (1964), p. 213.
- 14.
Kennedy (1988), p. 8.
- 15.
Purvis (1991), p. 115.
- 16.
Arend (1999), p. 27.
- 17.
[1942] AC 206.
- 18.
[1951] AC 66. However, it must be noted that the Hands off the Executive approach was rekindled in the 1977 case of Rv Secretary of State ex parte Hosenball, a deportee case where Lord Denning said that when there was a conflict of interest between the interests of national security on the one hand and the freedom of the individual on the other, the balance between the two should be determined by the Home Secretary who is entrusted this power by Parliament. See [1977] IWLR 766 at 783.
- 19.
General Assembly Resolution 2625 (XXV).
- 20.
Bull (1977), p. 13.
- 21.
Hurrell (1992), p. 73.
- 22.
Quoted in Morganthau and Kenneth (1950), p. 24.
- 23.
PCIJ Series A/B, No. 53, at pp. 53ff.
- 24.
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Abeyratne, R. (2011). The Shifting Focus. In: Space Security Law. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16702-7_1
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