European Economic Area stands for the change of the structure of Europe after the developments it has undergone in recent years. / Europe is changing, a new architecture is being put in place, and new responsibilities are being assumed.$ sp1$ The European Economic Community$ sp2$ is progressing towards an integrated internal market. The Member States of the European Free Trade Association$ sp3$ are seeking closer ties with the EEC. With Austria, a fully neutral country applied for Membership in the EEC for the first time. Finally, with the surrender of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe a large number of new countries are seeking after closer ties with the western market areas. / These changes did not leave air transport matters untouched. The development towards an internal market has led to substantial changes in the EEC legislation on these external relations. As a concrete outcome of these changes a draft agreement between two EFTA countries and the EEC has been negotiated, which may indicate the form of further cooperation between EEC and non-EEC countries in air transport matters. / This thesis was submitted in the summer/autumn of 1991, a few months before the successful negotiation of a European Economic Area (EEA) which embodies such further cooperation. ftn$ sp1$EES - A Historic Step towards a New Europe (3/90) EFTA Bulletin 1 at 1. quad $ sp2$Hereinafter referred to as EEC. quad $ sp3$Hereinafter referred to as EFTA.

There seems to be wide acceptance of the idea that divergencies between legal systems give rise to disadvantages. These divergencies are, and have always been, regarded as inconveniences to overcome, particularily between the Civil and Common Law traditions, which present quite diverging points of view in the way the Law is thought. Today, one criterion of evaluating any harmonization of international legal norms is the extent to which the effort enhances certainty, a quality much appreciated in the field of international commercial contracts. / In fact, today, there is a detectable effort on the international level to harmonize the laws, especially in relevance to international contracts, in order to provide a better environment for world trade. / When we decided to go through this subject, we had in mind the importance of understanding this harmonization tendency on the international sphere. That may be the reason why we have tried, in this thesis, to expose the harmonization process adopted by some recent conventions. Our purpose was to prove that, even though differences and disparities may exist, as long as there is a uniform tendency toward social and cultural uniformity, one might predict that these divergencies would eventually even out. We see in this tendency an indication of the convergence of the Common and Civil Law toward the same destination: make this world a better place.

The liability regime of the air carrier is regulated by the Warsaw Convention of 1929. The latter establishes a certain uniform set of regulations in the field of international carriage by air. This universally accepted Convention was gradually amended and supplemented by later instruments in order to adjust and adapt this uniform set of rules to the changing and rapid growth of the aviation industry. / Thailand, however, is one of the few countries who have not yet become a party to this beneficial system. This results in conflicts of laws and jurisdictions. / The purpose of this dissertation is to explain and analyze the necessity and significance of Thailand's adherence to the Warsaw System, and to propose a strategy for Thailand to become a party to this system.

Should civil aviation reach its promising full potential, it will inevitably be through the use and reliance upon Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and its innovative technologies. At present only one option seems clearly and 'directly' operational for the civil aviation challenge, and that is a---USA owned and controlled---GPS based GNSS. / This thesis will critically discuss the legal and institutional issues of the GNSS. The issues considered will be based upon the discussions and conclusions recently reached within ICAO. The object of this thesis is to compare, contrast and criticise ICAO's international law-making propositions, related to GNSS, in the fight of the 'practical reality' varying from the users' demands and expectations, passing through the lack of practical experiences, to the USA monopoly as sole basic signal provider. / Whilst ICAO is undeniably a great contributor to global development of civil aviation, it seems that in the case of GNSS implementation, ICAO's role is limited by both its mandate, but equally a lack of political consensus upon potential 'solutions' to hypothetical problems. / The research is based on materials and documents available by the end of May 1997 and does not take into account the later developments in ICAO discussions.

Since 1944, the International Civil Aviation Organization (I.C.A.O.) has the mandate to create and to adopt safety standards for the benefit of all Member States and for the safe operation of the air navigation. It is essential, for the air transport overall success, that each country respects those standards and strongly implement them. However, some Member States do not indicate their differences to those standards. This unstable situation has pushed certain states to adopt unilateral action against those countries that do not respect international standards. Indeed, they will not emit an operation permit to any country that does not comply with the I.C.A.O.'s minimal standards. / Accordingly, some official actions had to be taken by the (I.C.A.O.) In October 1994, the Organization established the safety oversight program, which mandate was to identify Member States' difficulties regarding air operation and give them assistance to help them resolve their difficulties. Our thesis work will identify the events leading to the application of this new program and explain the general structure of it. Finally, we will overlook the next steps of the I.C.A.O.'s program. Some commentary on the I.C.A.O.'s program will be offered throughout this thesis.

In the course of the last decade, computer reservation systems have become the prime channel for the distribution of air transport services. While their benefits for consumers, travel agents and airlines are undisputed, CRS have caused considerable legal problems in both the CRS and the airline industries. As self-regulation did not prove to be effective, different authorities have issued instruments addressing the relevant issues. / After a brief presentation of the CRS industry and of the main legal problems, the first part of this thesis will give a detailed analysis of three major CRS regulations: The Regulations on Carrier-Owned Computer Reservation Systems, issued by the United States Department of Transportation, the EEC Council Regulation on a code of conduct for computerized reservation systems and the Code of Conduct for the Regulation and Operation of Computer Reservation Systems, adopted by ICAO. / The second part will deal with the General Agreement on Trade in Services, which forms part of the GATT and which will be applicable to CRS services. General remarks about services will be followed by an analysis of the GATS, emphasizing provisions which could be of relevance for the operation of CRS. / The concluding third part of the thesis will comment on the impact of GATS on the CRS industry, on its suitability as a world-wide regime for the operation of CRS and on the relationship between GATS and ICAO.

Member Countries of the Andean Community (ANCOM) have established a supranational legal regime applicable to intra and extra-subregional air transport activities: the Andean Subregional Air Transport Integration system. This regime was established by Decisions 297 and 320 and was based on the Colombia-Venezuela Bilateral Air Transport Agreement. It revolutionizes the status quo regarding air transport. The new regime adopts the principles of multiple designation of air carriers, free determination of frequencies and capacities for scheduled air services performed with the Subregion, and complete liberalization for non-scheduled air services. It creates an "Andean subregional market" and promotes the establishment of a "common" position for negotiating intra and extra-regional fifth freedom. / Member Countries have been unresponsive in updating their bilateral agreements vis-a-vis the regime set by Decisions 297 and 320. This situation makes the application and healthy development of the Andean Subregional Air Transport Integration process difficult. / In order to avoid these difficulties, Member Countries shall apply the supranational principles contained in Decisions 297 and 320 and update their bilateral agreements. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

In Swiss law the buyer's remedies for breach of warranty of quality remedies are different in many respects from his other contractual remedies. The aim of this thesis is to show that it is not a necessity but rather a source of confusion for the Swiss legal system to have special remedies for breach of warranty. General contract remedies could very effectively and rationally compensate buyers for breaches of quality warranties. To achieve this aim this study starts by analysing the historical reasons for the adoption of special warranty remedies. In its second half it compares each warranty remedy found in the Swiss Code of obligations with its equivalent in three recent legal systems: Quebec law, the Uniform Commercial Code of the United States and the United Nations 1980 Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

Traditionally, American courts refused to enforce foreign forum selection clauses as against public policy. / This doctrine was abandoned in 1972 in the Bremen, where the United States Supreme Court established the presumption of validity of foreign forum selection clauses. However, the enforceability of such clauses is subject to certain exceptions which relate to particular applications of the general principles of contract law. / The Bremen analysis was modified in 1991, when the Supreme Court decided Carnival Cruise, which limited the scope of such exceptions and strengthened the presumption of validity of forum selection clauses. / In 1995, the Supreme Court decided Sky Reefer, overruling the lower court decision in Indussa, and extending the presumption of validity of foreign forum selection clauses to maritime bills of lading subject to the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA).

The United Nations Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Goods of 24th May 1980 is an appropriate answer to the legal and political problems raised by through carriage and containerisation. / Traditionally, when goods were transferred from one mode to another they were also transferred to a new legal regime. There was no coherent legal regime governing carrier liability for goods moving in multimodal transport. The Convention creates a new liability system and confer international legal sanction on the responsibilities and immunities flowing from the multimodal transport contract. / The Convention compromises between the needs of developing countries--who called for provisions on regulation and control of multimodal operations at the domestic level--and the demands of developed countries--who wanted the convention to deal primarily with private law matters and pointed to the danger of conflicts with modal conventions. / The Convention is not yet in force but its provisions are the basis of current through carriage contracts.