6.2 Blog Discussion: Legislative Acts

 An interesting aspect of aviation legislation is the fact that much of the legislation and regulations are left to individual countries. The need for some amount of international regulation was recognized in the 1940’s and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was founded. ICAO governs international aviation law and aims to provide continuity and consistency across major aviation regulations. While many regulations are still country specific, ICAO provides an overarching view of what must be similar among nations to ensure safe aviation operations.

Since its conception in 1947 ICAO has firmly held its stance on not superseding national regulations, rather aiming to support regulations in place by various government agencies. ICAO “conducts educational outreach, develops coalitions, and conducts auditing, training, and capacity building activities worldwide” to support various industry regulators such as the FAA or Transport Canada (About ICAO, n.d.). 

The scope of ICAO’s work has changed dramatically since the 1940’s as aviation has changed at a rapid pace since it’s conception. Aviation now crosses borders and airspace so much that a level of consistency must be maintained across national borders. In addition, topics of security, and environmental impacts are becoming more important, and for there to be an impact on either of these factors there must be a level of cooperation among nations. ICAO facilitates these discussions in addition to legislative and regulatory discussions. 

Ressources: 

About ICAO. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://www.icao.int/about-icao/Pages/default.aspx