Air and Space Law Commons^™

Sharing Public Safety Helicopters, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Drones, Henry H. Perritt Jr., Eliot O. Sprague

All Faculty Scholarship

Abstract

Drone technology is evolving rapidly. Microdrones—what the FAA calls “sUAS”—already on the market at the $1,000 level, have the capability to supplement manned helicopters in support of public safety operations, news reporting, and powerline and pipeline patrol, when manned helicopter support is infeasible, untimely, or unsafe.

Larger drones–"machodrones”–are not yet available outside battlefield and counterterrorism spaces. Approximating the size of manned helicopters, but without pilots, or with human pilots being optional, their design is still in its infancy as designers await greater clarity in the regulatory requirements that will drive airworthiness certification.

This article evaluates drone technology and design …

Drones, Henry H. Perritt Jr., Eliot O. Sprague

Henry H. Perritt, Jr.

Houston, We Have A (Liability) Problem, Justin Silver

Michigan Law Review

The development of private manned space flight is proceeding rapidly; there are proposals to launch paying passengers before the end of 2014. Given the historically dangerous nature of space travel, an accident will probably occur at some point, resulting in passengers’ injury or death. In the event of a lawsuit stemming from such an accident, a court will likely find that a space flight entity operating suborbital flights is a common carrier, while an entity operating orbital flights is not. Regardless of whether these entities are common carriers, they face a threat of high levels of liability, as well as …

Delayed Flights And Delayed Action: The U.S. Department Of Transportation’S Tarmac Delay Regulations And Their Impact On Air Travel, Daniel Friedenzohn

Daniel Friedenzohn

No abstract provided.

Code-Sharing In The U.S. Airline Industry: Effective Disclosure Requirements For An Aspect Of Air Transport That Is Complex, Important, And Often Misunderstood, Daniel Friedenzohn

Daniel Friedenzohn

No abstract provided.

The Aircraft Sector Understanding: New Financing Rules That Reflect The Aviation World Of Today, Daniel Friedenzohn

Daniel Friedenzohn

In late February, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) held a signing ceremony for the new Aircraft Sector Understanding (ASU) that governs export financing rules for aircraft manufactured in all OECD countries and Brazil. Unlike a treaty, which results in countries adopting a document with compulsory obligations, this accord is a “soft law” non-binding arrangement. And yet, this multilateral gentlemen’s agreement, in its many versions, has been an effective tool in providing financing rules for civil and commercial aircraft. The ASU sets forth the most favorable terms that can be extended by export credit agencies to eligible parties …

Balance And Alliance, Daniel Friedenzohn

Daniel Friedenzohn

DOJ's lawsuit against the AA-US Airways merger imposes an unanticipated and misguided delay in the US airline industry's long desired transformation.

Sharing Public Safety Helicopters, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

Henry H. Perritt, Jr.

No abstract provided.

Countdown To Blastoff: Florida's Deadline For Spaceport Zoning Laws, Anthony G. Ison

Anthony G Ison

No abstract provided.

Keep Your Eyes On Eyes In The Sky, Hillary B. Farber

Faculty Publications

To date, eight states have passed bills regulating domestic drone use by government and private individuals. This leaves us with a question: If a city of more than 60,000 residents and a global company with a customer base in the hundreds of millions are racing to the sky, how are we as a commonwealth of 6.6 million to truly launch ourselves into the debate and protect what little privacy we have left?

Autonomous Weapons And Human Responsibilities, Jack M. Beard

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Although remote-controlled robots flying over the Middle East and Central Asia now dominate reports on new military technologies, robots that are capable of detecting, identifying, and killing enemies on their own are quietly but steadily movingfrom the theoretical to the practical. The enormous difficulty in assigning responsibilities to humans and states for the actions ofthese machines grows with their increasing autonomy. These developments implicate serious legal, ethical, and societal concerns. This Article focuses on the accountability of states and underlying human responsibilities for autonomous weapons under International Humanitarian Law or the Law of Armed Conflict. After reviewing the evolution of …

Help From Above: The Role Of International Law In Facilitating The Use Of Outer Space For Disaster Management, Brian R. Israel

Brian R Israel

This chapter explores the role of international law as well as non-legal mechanisms in enabling the use of outer space for valuable new disaster management applications. This overall challenge is addressed in three phases, ranging from the collective action problems arising from the use of space in general, to sovereignty-based objections to observing the Earth from space, to the complex coordination challenges of harnessing existing space systems for disaster applications. One mechanism in particular, the legally non-binding International Charter for Space and Major Disasters, serves as a remarkable case study in international cooperation because of the speed with which it …

The Environmentally Conscious Skies: Did The European Union’S Game Of Brinksmanship Lead To A Viable Global Plan For Emissions Trading In Aviation?, Darren Prum, Kathryn Kisska-Schulze

Darren A. Prum

Effective January 1, 2012, the European Union (EU) instituted the first emissions trading scheme (ETS) for aviation which affected the domestic and international commercial airline industry flying into and out of the EU. The EU established the ETS to counter the global aviation sector’s role in releasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; however, such movement was met with heavy opposition by foreign countries, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), various commercial airlines and the Air Transport Association of America (ATA). This paper analyzes the legality of the EU’s unilateral ETS approach with respect to the commercial airline industry, examines the subsequent …

Standards, Standards Everywhere: Assessing Current Initiatives For Human Spaceflight Standards And Their Potential Effect On Future Regulations, Mark J. Sundahl

Law Faculty Contributions to Books

One of the critical questions facing the human spaceflight industry is how its activities will be regulated during the infancy of the industry. It is generally agreed that regulation is necessary to address safety risks to crew, passengers and third parties. However, there is also a concern that government agencies may over-regulate the industry in a manner that could create unnecessary administrative burdens and interfere with technological innovation. In fact, the growth of regulation over the human space industry has been quite slow. Although the United States enacted the Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight Participants in …

From Space Tourists To Unruly Passengers? The U.S. Struggle With "On-Orbit Jurisdiction", F. G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

With the first proper commercial sub-orbital “space tourist” flights seemingly around the corner, the need to develop a proper legal system addressing all relevant parameters, scenarios, and events also arises more visibly. This is particularly true for the United States, where so far the major developments in private manned spaceflight are concentrated, some of which may soon move from relatively straightforward up-and-down sub-orbital trajectories to longer-duration suborbital and/or orbital flights, or even long-duration presence in (potentially private) space stations. As one author succinctly put it: humans are essentially unpredictable, and the longer their flights will be, the less preordained and …

Federal Versus State: Private Commercial Spaceflight Operator Immunity Regulation In The United States, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

The 2004 Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act provided the first national statute dedicated to private commercial spaceflight, further elaborated by a Chapter in the Code of Federal Regulations. A major element of that regulation concerns the “informed consent” requirement, which constitutes the main condition upon which a private commercial spaceflight operator is allowed to fly paying passengers into the edge of outer space and back. The requirement as such does not automatically equate with a statutory waiver of passenger liability, which was a major reason for a handful of individual US states to add by way of statutes such immunity …

Will The New Icao-Beijing Instruments Build A Chinese Wall For International Aviation Security?, Alejandro Piera, Michael Gill

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The last 6 years have seen an unprecedented level of activity in the field of international aviation law, with the adoption of three new conventions and one new protocol. This is a testament to ICAO's leadership role and its ongoing relevance, particularly in the field of aviation security. The tragic events of 9/11 highlighted some weaknesses in the international law regime and were the impetus behind the nine-year process that led to the adoption of the 2010 Beijing Convention and Protocol. This Article reviews the historical background to the new treaties, including the journey taken through the ICAO process. It …

The New Orient Express: Current Trends And Regulations In Space Tourism And The Need For Commercial Hypersonic Point To Point Travel, Patrick Zurita

Global Business Law Review

This paper aims to answer the question of what the new privatized space regime will not only look like, but also if and how it will expand. In answering the question an examination of who will most be affected by space tourism and a subsequent space travel industry is required. Additionally, a cursory look at the history of airline regulation both domestically and abroad is needed to understand the future of private space flight. Next, an overview of past and current space and hypersonic technologies is required to attempt any projection of future advances. Finally, this paper sets out to …

A Kellogbriand Pact For The 21st Century, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This article briefly describes why the State parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons rejected human rights groups’ call for a ban on so called “killer robots.” This article contends that the international community resoundingly rejected this argument at the first ever experts meeting on lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) because it ignores the wide range and longstanding use of LAWS and presupposes their future development while failing to acknowledge even the possibility that LAWS may facilitate greater protection of both military and civilians.