Trends in Aviation Policy in 1944 and Since

Abstract

At the Chicago Conference in 1944, various schools of thought found expression. There were those who took up an idealistic- universal attitude and stressed the future of international civil aviation in general; there were those who thought only of their own national interests; and there were those who believed they were serving both the international, worldwide, aspect and their own national interests at the same time. Most States, and this was soon clear to all, were seeking in the first place to provide their own international civil aviation with as many guarantees as possible for its development. On the other hand, these guarantees must not be likely to endanger the development of international civil aviation in general. It proved impossible, however, for the delegates to find the formula for the right balance between the requirements of their own national interests and those of the general interest, of which, in any case, they had only a very vague idea.

The use of the air has this in common with the use of the sea: it is a highway given by nature to all men. It differs in this from the sea: that it is subject to the sovereignty of the nations over which it moves. Nations ought therefore to arrange among themselves for its use in that manner which will be of the greatest benefit to all humanity, wherever situated.

Adolf A. Berle, Chairman of U.S. Delegation to the Civil Aviation Conference, Chicago, 1944¹)