From its formal beginnings in the late eighteenth century, the aviation not only conquered the sky but also the minds and hearts of men and women who, from then until today, have dreamed, have flown, and, in many cases, have risked, and even lost, their lives doing so. In the same way, aviation became integrated into our societies, cultures, and ways of life, directly influencing legal systems and giving rise to a new field of legal thought. In this context, the proclamation of Paul Fauchille (1901) takes on full meaning: “The air, like the seas, belongs to all and to none.”
The first aeronautical regulation was issued on April 23, 1784, by Jean Charles Pierre Lenoir, lieutenant of the Paris police, through an ordinance requiring special authorization to conduct balloon flights. This measure is recognized by international jurists as the first formal aviation rule, setting the precedent that the sky, until then a symbol of absolute freedom, should also be subject to certain laws.
The ordinance was a response to the excitement generated by the first manned hot-air balloon flight, conducted in 1783 by Pilâtre de Rozier and the Montgolfier brothers. Within months, the growing number of experiments and public demonstrations revealed the need for a regulatory framework to ensure safety and order in a rapidly expanding new activity.
The second known aeronautical regulation emerged in 1819, issued by Count D’Anglès, police chief of the Seine department. It required every balloon to carry a parachute for each occupant and prohibited flights during the harvest season, thereby introducing the concept of operational safety and the protection of third parties.
This ordinance reflected the growing interest in flying across Europe, where inventors such as Louis Proust (1792) and Diego Marín Aguilera (1793) carried out some of the earliest documented experiments. Although rudimentary, these attempts demonstrated both human ingenuity and the need for legal frameworks to accompany technical progress.
The first international agreement on aviation was signed in 1898 between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany, regulating the status of military balloons crossing borders. This milestone resulted from decades in which aviation evolved from curiosity, to technical and scientific discipline, driven by figures such as William Henson, John Stringfellow, and Henri Giffard, whose steam-powered designs laid the foundations for controlled flight.
In subsequent decades, inventors such as Pedro Ruiz Gallo, Aleksandr Mozhaiski, Clément Ader, and Samuel Langley further consolidated the scientific approach to flying. Although their achievements were limited in scope, they confirmed that the airspace already involved risks, practical uses, and emerging legal challenges.
The first international convention addressing aviation was held at The Hague between May 15 and July 31, 1899, at the initiative of Tsar Alexander II. There, a proposal was made to prohibit the launching of projectiles from balloons, anticipating future debates on the military use of airspace and establishing aviation as a matter of international law.
Not long after, in 1902, the International Law Society met in Brussels and held the first formal debate on the legal nature of airspace. During this meeting, four doctrinal currents regarding aerial navigation were presented:
- Absolute freedom of aerial navigation: Supporters of the idea that airspace is free, not subject to state sovereignty, argued that aircraft should be allowed to fly over any territory without requesting permission, as originally proposed by Fauchille.
- Absolute state sovereignty: Other jurists maintained that each State has full and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory, comparable to classical territorial sovereignty on land.
- Layered sovereignty by altitude: An intermediate position proposed that state sovereignty should apply only to the lower layers of airspace, while higher altitudes, above a certain limit, would remain open for international air navigation.
- Functional limitation of state power: Finally, some recognized state sovereignty but with functional restrictions derived from International Law, such as acknowledging certain rights of passage or international use in the interest of the common good..
These discussions were driven by technological advances that made flying a practical reality, such as Samuel Langley’s experiments and the Wright brothers’ glider flights in Kitty Hawk, which showed that the mastery of the air was no longer theoretical but tangible, requiring legal responses.
The first drafts of the future Air Code were prepared in 1906 during the Ghent session of the Institute of International Law. At that time, aviation was expanding rapidly. Figures like Santos Dumont, who in 1906 made the first officially observed flight with his 14-bis, and the Wright brothers, who perfected their Flyer III, reinforced the urgency of establishing international rules to accompany technological progress.
In 1908, the Florence session of the Institute refined the Ghent draft, incorporating principles of identification, registration, and aircraft control, as groundwork for a future codification of air law. The growing number of flights and demonstrations, such as those by Henri Farman and Louis Blériot, highlighted the need for a supranational regulation to prevent diplomatic conflicts and ensure operational safety.
In 1910, during the Paris session of the Institute of International Law, a systematic draft of the “International Air Code” was presented, marking the first formal attempt at codifying air navigation law. Resulting from prior deliberations in Ghent (1906) and Florence (1908), the text established principles on airspace sovereignty, nationality and registration of aircraft, state and civil liability, and protection of third parties. Its preparation coincided with milestones such as Blériot’s flight across the English Channel and the rise of international competitions, underscoring the global and transboundary character of flight.
The first formal ordinances regulating air navigation and balloon and airship flights, including cross-border operations, appeared in 1911, when several European states, including France and Germany, began restricting flight rights and imposing authorization requirements. That same year, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin founded the first regular air transport company in Germany, operating airships between Friedrichshafen and Düsseldorf.
In 1916, the Pan-American Aeronautical Federation convened a conference in Santiago, Chile, recommending the adoption of a uniform air law among american republics. This initiative arose as aviation played a decisive role in World War I. The military use of aircraft underscored the need to distinguish civil from military aviation and to coordinate common standards among allied nations. Latin America, aware of these transformations, sought to anticipate them by proposing a continental legal framework to foster cooperation.
In 1917, various international committees were created to prepare the regulation of civil aviation after the war, including the Civil Aerial Transport Committee in the United Kingdom and parallel commissions in France. These bodies worked on principles of operational safety, technical certification, and international cooperation, laying the foundation for the postwar air order and the future governance of airspace.
Finally, closing this first stage in the history of international aeronautical regulation, on October 13, 1919, the International Air Navigation Convention was signed in Paris, the first multilateral treaty to establish a uniform legal framework for global aviation. Signed by 27 states, it enshrined state sovereignty over airspace, defined the registration and nationality of aircrafts, set standards for airworthiness and technical competence, and created the International Commission for Air Navigation (ICAN), precursor to today’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).