Publication
The Chicago system: a steadfast legal blueprint for world civil aviation?
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the magna carta of civil aviation, the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention 1944), Professor Steven Truxal has written a leading piece for the European Civil Aviation Conference: The Chicago system: a steadfast legal blueprint for world civil aviation?
- Author
- Steven Truxal
- Date
- 21 July 2025
The Chicago Convention established the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
On 12 May 2025, ICAO Council voted that the Russian Federation failed to uphold its obligations under international air law in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.
This was the first time in ICAO’s history that its Council has made a determination on the merits of a dispute between Member States under the Organization’s dispute settlement mechanism. According to ICAO:
'The Council agreed that the claims brought by Australia and the Netherlands as a result of the shooting down of Flight MH17 on 17 July 2014, were well founded in fact and in law. The case centered on allegations that the conduct of the Russian Federation in the downing of the aircraft by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine constitutes a breach of Article 3 bis of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, which requires that States ‘refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight.’
Read the article: The Chicago system: a steadfast legal blueprint for world civil aviation?