The first international treaty to establish unified principles for aerial navigation, laying groundwork for modern international aviation law.
Key Facts
- Formal name
- Convention Relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation
- Date signed
- 13 October 1919
- Organizing body
- International Commission for Air Navigation (ICAN)
- ICAN successor
- International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
- Scope
- First international convention on aerial navigation regulation
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The rapid development of aviation following World War I created a fragmented regulatory environment, with individual nations applying inconsistent and often conflicting rules to international aerial navigation. This patchwork of ideologies and regulations made cross-border flight legally and politically complicated.
On 13 October 1919, the Paris Convention was signed under the auspices of the International Commission for Air Navigation. It established guiding principles and provisions intended to harmonize the rules governing international aerial navigation across signatory states.
The convention created a foundational legal framework for international aviation governance, directly preceding and informing the later establishment of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which succeeded ICAN and became the primary global body for civil aviation regulation.
Political Outcome
Adoption of the first international framework regulating aerial navigation, establishing shared principles among signatory nations.