How Are Disputes Resolved under Bilateral Air Services Agreements? A Typology

Abstract

After a dispute between India and Pakistan broke out concerning overflight rights, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Secretariat reviewed 204 bilateral aeronautical agreements between 1941 and 1951 and listed them according to the categories of dispute resolution clauses that they contained. Around 68 years have passed and the ICAO Council has exercised its dispute settlement power in multiple occasions. This article builds upon the research carried out by the ICAO Secretariat, which it supplements with up-to-date data of 709 agreements. It then provides a typology, a study of different types, of bilateral air services agreements (ASAs). The article concludes that the use of international arbitration is the primary forum for dispute resolution chosen by drafters of bilateral ASAs. However, a look at the cases brought to ad hoc arbitration reveals deficiencies, which leads us to discuss potential institutionalized reforms.