The process of European integration has had an impact on the cultural patterns of the Member States but it is not inevitably eroding national identities. By analysing the way in which the ability of the Member States to pursue a national language policy is restricted by the free movement principles and by analysing the cultural action taken at the supranational level it is argued that the European Community is genuinely committed to protecting and maintaining its cultural diversity. However, the political sensitivity which surrounds any impingement of national cultural sovereignty coupled with the fact that the objective of European integration remains primarily economic has significantly restricted the European Community's room to manoeuvre in the cultural sphere. A re-ordering of Community values and priorities would prevent non-economic interests, such as cultural interests, from being consistently trumped by those which are of an economic nature. In the meantime, the European Community must expressly and unequivocally state its commitment to cultural diversity, for example, in a Community Cultural Charter. Further, it is asserted that tangible cultural homogeneity is not required in the development of the overarching European identity necessary to legitimise the future construction of Europe.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are a key technology underpinning the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO's) communications, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management concept. The fact the de facto GNSS, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is a military system owned, operated and controlled by the United States raises many legal and institutional issues for civil aviation. / This thesis will discuss the nature of GPS/GNSS as a global utility, ICAO's evolutionary path toward a civil GNSS (ie one independent from GPS) and trace the development of the institutional debate within ICAO. Reliance on navigation by GNSS in terms of the principle of State sovereignty over territorial airspace and the Chicago Convention will be considered. The three major institutional issues in respect of a GPS based GNSS (ie charging, non-discriminatory access and liability) will be examined. / This thesis will also examine past and present State practice in respect of radionavigation systems of an international character in considering whether a legal framework for GNSS is necessary, and if so what form it is likely to take. The conclusions reached on these issues will be summarised in the final chapter.

This study explores selected issues in the legal environment created by domestic and international electronic contracting practices on the Internet within the United States and international jurisdictions: questions regarding the formation of the contract through the Internet, the enforceability of such a contract (contractual writing requirements, legally binding signatures), the contents of the contract, the ways to prove the electronic contract, the applicable law and the competent court, and finally, the best ways to settle disputes arising from electronic contracts are considered. We examine to what extent contract law, and in particular article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), provides a satisfactory legal ground for the Internet, and how the various model trading partner agreements or the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's Draft Model Statutory Provisions (UNCITRAL DMSP) deal with legal contract issues. We attempt to show that contracts in Cyberspace do not require any substantial reform but only some changes and adaptations to existing law, since when the policy considerations that underlie an existing rule still make sense as applied to Cyberspace, a completely new rule is not worth having. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The International Airspace is located above the High Seas. In this area, the freedom of overflight is absolute, alike the freedom of navigation on International waters. No State can exercise its constraint power. / Nowadays, the International Airspace is used in different ways, more or less legally. Sometimes, abuses can happen, for instance, a civil aircraft can use the International Airspace in order to "spy" military activities of a foreign State. / In that case, the State, victim of the abuse, has essentially two ways to reply: legal means or armed force. / Even in a case of reply to an abuse, International Law clearly prohibits from resorting to weapons against a civil aircraft located in or out the International Airspace. In spite of this prohibition, incidents are still happening.

Concerned with the survival of Christianity in the Middle-East, Rene Habachi engages a dialogue between thinking and life. Half a century ahead of his time, Habachi puts forward a proposal for peaceful coexistence---something which today's diplomacy is still struggling to sketch out. In a Mediterranean where traditions abound, nationalities vary, cultures overlap and civilisations succeed one another, Habachi opts for a philosophy anchored in the present, having recourse to traditions of the past, so as to prepare a better future. Respectful of the three monotheistic religions in the Middle-East and cognizant of the practical difficulty in managing a peaceful coexistence, Habachi calls for dialogue between the three religions, while assigning to each a specific task: for Judaism, the task of hospitality; for Islam, the task of tolerance; and for Christianity, the task of gratuitousness. Habachi remains convinced that only healthy and equitable economy is the basis for solidarity.

As a consequence of the American deregulation policy, combined with the effects of the economic crisis and that of the realization of the "unique market", the European airline industry is undergoing a large movement of re-structuralization. / The European Commission admitted the inevitable character of this trend towards concentrations among transporters but wished to control the issue, to prevent any infringement to the principles of competition as stated in the EEC Treaty. / Initially elaborated by a consequent jurisprudence of the European Communities Court of Justice, this control led to the adoption in 1989, of a specific regulation on concentrations. / Considered as an essential tool towards the realisation of the Community objectives, its implementing must nevertheless be combined with the imperatives of a common industrial policy and take into account the globalisation trend that is attached to this activity.

The present thesis analyzes merger control in the European Economic Community, a topical domain on the eve of the completion of the internal market. After a definition according to three approaches (traditional, geographical, quantitative), the provisions of the Rome Treaty on competition law (articles 85 and 86) are elaborated upon, to underline the reinforcement of the Commission's control powers since the entry into force of Council Regulation N$ sp circ$4064/89, in September 1990. The air transport industry has been chosen to illustrate the concept of a priori control of concentrations and its modalities of application in different economic policies. / Jurisprudence and various regulations have promoted the application of EEC competition law to the air transport industry, and have contributed recently to the emergence of a common policy in this field. The Aerospatiale/de Havilland decision constitutes the first dismissal of a concentration notification, since the entry into force of the new provisions. It confirms the wide scope of the Commission's powers in the control of competition.

The thesis examines the Canadian policy and law affecting those services sectors affected by the provisions of the Canada - U.S. Free Trade Agreement which relate to telecommunications, enhanced network services, and computer/information services. / In particular, constitutional law and administrative law in telecommunications matters are examined. Also examined in detail are those provisions of the Free Trade Agreement which affect the regulatory measures relating to the telecommunications transport sector and regulatory measures relating to other services which extensively utilize telecommunications, computer and information services.

The treaty of Rome signed in 1957 creating the European Community establishes a common market and this market has to be done by 1993 upon the European Single Act of 1986. Airlines must be governed by the dispositions of the treaty. / For a long time, this had not been affirmed, but the European Court of Justice said in 1974 that the general rules of the treaty apply to the air transport sector and precised this decision in the "Nouvelles Frontieres" case of 1986. / Those decisions were a first step towards liberalization and the Council and the Commission of the Community followed the court and adopted measures to liberalize the sector in the first air transport package in December 1987. These decisions and measures are problematic because there are quiet about the external relations of EEC member states with third countries. / The "Saeed" case of 1989 brings a solution, but the second air transport package of July 1990 still stays too quiet about it whereas it liberalises the air transport further. This should be resolved in the third package in 1993.

Private international air law encompasses the delicate balance of interest between the air carriers and the consumers of their service. This balance is made by states according to their socioeconomic and political conditions. Since these conditions differ among states, another, yet more complex conflict of interests arises between states as to how the interest of air carriers and consumers should be balanced. This difference between states has been, and still is, the biggest obstacle in the way of unifying private international air law. / Giving an overview of the present situation and the possible future implications, this thesis highlights the balance of interest of the successive private international air law instruments and examines the factors that lead thereto. This thesis further analyses the crisis of unified private international air law and the actions taken to confront it by examining the reasons behind it in order to understand the current situation and apprehend the future.