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At present, international attention is focused on an emerging draft treaty concerning security interests in mobile goods. Highly valued mobile assets (such as aircraft) by nature move from one jurisdiction to another, and therefore, an international convention dealing the creation and recognition of property rights in such goods is necessary. This thesis will concentrate on the laws governing the taking of aircraft as security. / The draft UNIDROIT Convention, once approved and implemented by states, would introduce a vast degree of economic benefits to airlines and their respective governments, ranging from lower banking interest rates to more credit being generated, all of which will benefit national economies and the traveling public at large. / Given the strong attitude shown by a majority of states that reflects their unwillingness to surrender some basic legal principles relating to property rights, the author considers it proper to undertake this work, which will concentrate on important legal problems relating to international aircraft financing.

The aviation industry is one characterized by its constant search for new methods to finance and acquire new equipment as international markets develop. In this search, multiple legal and financial frameworks have been created resulting in economic flexibility for carriers, through very complex transactions. Inside this trend of financial arrangements the most frequently used method is to lease the equipment they need. / The main concern related to these transactions is that aircrafts are highly movable assets that can travel to various jurisdictions. This faculty supposes a threat to lessors and owners' property interests over the aircraft because property law is encompassed into national laws and are not easily recognized in other countries in cases of controversies centered in a movable good. / Chapter I of this thesis will focus on the different types of financing methods used by carriers to procure new equipment. Chapter II discusses the current international conventions in force regulating international leases. Finally, Chapter III purports to analyze the Draft UNIDROIT Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the Protocol related to Aircraft Equipment.

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In the last decade, the European air transport industry has undergone a process in several stages of transition towards a single market. Liberalization has been closely linked to the effective application of the state aid rules of the EC Treaty. / In principle, direct aid to undertakings within the common market is not prohibited by the state aid rules in the Treaty. However, aid granted by Member States that distorts or threatens to distort competition by giving one airline an unfair advantage over its competitors, and in so far as it affects trade between Member States, is incompatible with the Treaty. Certain mandatory or discretionary exemptions may apply to aid to airlines providing that the measure fulfills the conditions and requirements as stated by the Treaty. The European Commission and the EFTA Surveillance Authority have a wide discretion in deciding whether or not certain aid measures fall within the stated exemptions. Where the market forces alone are not able to achieve the desired results or if they are only able to do so in a limited capacity, such exemptions may be warranted to the extent not contrary to the common interest. / A special mechanism is in place to ensure that state aid is properly scrutinized in the light of the demands of the Treaty and the EEA Agreement. The EC Commission or the EFTA Surveillance Authority must be notified of all aid measures in order to assess their compatibility with state aid rules.

After more than ten years from its initiation by the Canadian delegation in 1988, the UNIDROIT's legal reform in the area of international security and leasing interests in mobile equipment reached its final stage of discussion at the international level. A Preliminary Draft UNIDROIT Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (" Convention") and a Preliminary Draft Protocol on Matters Specific to Aircraft Equipment ("Protocol") present an evolution of the international security law and the aircraft finance law in particular. The "Convention", as applied through the "Protocol", particularly aims at economic benefits for the aviation industry, which has to cope with considerable financing difficulties due to the uncoordinated national security laws. This thesis addresses legal and economic issues behind the UNIDROIT proposal. / The texts of the "Convention" and the " Protocol" as reviewed by the Drafting Committee of the First Joint Session (Rome, 1--12 February 1999), are attached in the Appendix. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Canadian airport authorities benefit from the right to seize and detain aircraft where airport charges remain unpaid. By objective measures, this right constitutes a preferred non-consensual right or interest that takes priority under Canadian law over all competing rights and interests in the aircraft subject to seizure and detention, including, for example, the interests of an owner, lessor or secured creditor. In this manner, airport authorities may recover outstanding user fees from both the airlines themselves and from the aircraft owners or lessors. / The Unidroit Convention attempts to harmonise the law applicable to aircraft finance transactions. As such, it targets private law rights. However, its breadth and scope touch upon the statutory rights of third parties with non-consensual interests in aircraft, including those of airport authorities to seize and detain aircraft. / The interplay between the Unidroit regime and the seizure and detention rights of Canada's airport is the focus of this academic discourse. It demonstrates that even though this right, recourse and remedy is of fundamental importance to Canada's National Airports System and its transportation infrastructure generally, the Unidroit Convention could, if implemented as drafted, effectively compromise the ability of Canadian airports to seize and detain aircraft.

In June 1998, a Steering and Revisions Committee of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (Unidroit) fleshed out the final version of a "Draft Unidroit Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment". / Framed by introductory and concluding remarks, the thesis is divided into five chapters. One after the other, these components will expound the generation and elaboration of the reform project, synchronise its jurisdictional aspects with the pre-existing law of international civil procedure and of conflict of jurisdictions, trace intimately related other harmonisation efforts, and briefly compare conventional and up-to-date substantive and conflict of law rules of selected Common and Civil Law jurisdictions that apply to secured transactions and their underlying contractual relationships. It will also review the essential legal characteristics of the 50 years old Geneva Convention on the International Recognition of Rights in Aircraft and ascertain its qualities in the light of present-day demands, before turning to the gist of substantive and uniform security and assignment law as applicable on the basis of the newly created transnational registration mechanism. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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