All contracts of air carriage nowadays contain provisions limiting or excluding the liability of the carrier in the event of the negligence or otherwise of himself or his servants and agents. Since, in the vast majority of cases, the carrier employs servants and agents for the purpose of carrying out his obligations under his contracts to carry, the injury or damage complained of will invariably be the result of the acts of these servants or agents. The injured party will then have a choice of actions. He may sue the carrier whose vicarious liability is limited by the contract or he may sue the servant or agent who actually caused the damage.

A Dutch aircraft, on its way from Geneva to London, has an accident in Belgium. One of the victims, a Frenchman domiciled in Denmark, had purchased his ticket in Stockholm. Which law applies to the claims of the passenger's widow against the carrier: Dutch, Swiss, English, Belgian, French, Danish, or Swedish law? Of this kind of hypothetic cases, frequently presented in writings on air law, McNAIR says: "Far-fetched though these examples may appear at first sight, they are by no means beyond the realms of possibility."

The granting of rights to operate international air services has been the subject of two different approachs before and after the Second World War. There has been one unchanged question to solve: the problem of reciprocity between the different countries in providing such service, for the normal establishment of international air routes. [...]

The term 'international organization' embraces two quite different kinds of institutions, the 'inter-governmental organization' and the 'non-governmental organization'. [...]

In the vast expanse of the law, there is probably no branch or division which can trace its history farther back, or which is more important to the general public, including as it does innumerable elements of everyday life, than that branch of law dealing with Private Property. The term ‘Property’ has a bewildering variety of uses. However, basically it is used in two senses: that of ownership or title, and also to designate the ‘res’ over which ownership is or has been exercised. This one word is used to express both the genus and the species. The relationship between the individual and the ‘res’ which is his own property is known as the rights of ownership.

The efforts towards the international unification of air law have been carried on since the Age of Aviation began. In 1911, the Comité Juridique International d'Aviation presented the first suggestion of a uniform law, the Code International de l'Air. International conferences and conventions have contributed to the partial unification of some rules in international air navigation. Many writers in this field have emphasized the convenience of a broader unity.

Aviation is dynamic. In air transportation progress constantly outstrips the most optimistic predictions, and the great post-World-War II advances in the aeronautical sciences have produced a new dimension in air transportation: the commercial turbo-jet aircraft. In referring to these new aircraft, one writer states, "It is not adequate to simply say that they are just a faster, bigger aircraft. [...]

This survey does not purport to be exhaustive or comprehensive. It is an introduction to the activities of ICAO, a U. N. specialized agency, in the field of air navigation facilities or services as carried out by the interested states in the North Atlantic. ICAO's programme for the international financing of services necessary to civil aviation in areas which did not receive sufficient local support for them, now comprises the series of air navigation services in Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands and a network of ocean vessels in the North Atlantic.

In the 1870's a bishop who had charge of a small denominational college made his annual visit and stayed with the president. The bishop boasted a firm belief that everything that could-be invented had been invented. The college president thought otherwise. “In 50 years,” he said, “men will learn how to fly like birds.” The bishop, shocked, replied, “Flight is reserved for angels, and you have been guilty of blasphemy.”

Historically the United States has been built upon the principles of free competitive enterprise. Americans pride themselves that rivalry in production and markets has created the richest country in the world. Free competition has directed the essential energies of the workers to world leadership in industrial productivity and technological development. Political and social freedoms are dependent upon a private enterprise economy which has brought about the best possible product at the best margin of profit including the most rapid rate of growth commersurate with the ability of the populous to absorb technological advancement.