News and Events

April

4/12 – A Conversation with Jeffrey N. Shane

Today, the International Aviation Law Institute conducted the sixth interview in its "Conversations with Aviation Leaders" oral history project on airline deregulation. IALI's distinguished guest for the interview was Jeffrey N. Shane. Now a partner in the Washington, DC office of Hogan Lovells, Mr. Shane served five tours of duty with the U.S. Departments of Transportation and State. Most recently, from 2002 to 2008, he was Associate Deputy Secretary and then Under Secretary for Policy, both presidentially appointed positions. Recognized for his role in forging an Open Skies aviation policy for the United States, he also focused government attention on more effective ways of financing transportation infrastructure, raised the visibility of intermodal freight movements and logistics on the national policy agenda, and devoted significant efforts to addressing the implications of climate change for the transport sector. Finally, he championed the launch of the “NextGen” transformation of the U.S. air traffic control system, the acceleration of GPS modernization, and other vital technology initiatives to enhance both the efficiency and security of transportation. In September 2007 he was elected President of the triennial Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the first American to serve in that position since 1959.

Mr. Shane is the recipient of Aviation Week's L. Welch Pogue Award for lifetime achievement in aviation.

Professor Brian F. Havel, IALI Director, was Mr. Shane’s Interlocutor.

The "Conversations" oral history series focuses on interviewing those who have shaped the public law and policy of the airline industry during the age of global deregulation. Interviews with Michael E. Levine, Alfred E. Kahn, Robert L. Crandall, John R. Byerly, and Gerald L. Baliles have been completed, and our plans call for continuing the series with an interview at least once a year.

4/5 – An Institutional Defense of Antitrust Immunity for International Airline Alliances

In a forthcoming article, Gabriel Sanchez, the Institute’s Senior Research Fellow, argues that critiques of the DOT's immunization practices for international airline alliances – on economic or legalistic grounds – fail to account for institutional variables such as the Department’s epistemic advantages in setting and executing international aviation trade policy; as such they promote an unrealistic and normatively undesirable belief that the DOT ought to forego these policy goals in order to maintain some proposed notion of conceptual fidelity, economic or legalistic. The article also considers possible reforms to the DOT’s immunization powers and procedures which emanate from these critiques and highlights their institutional deficiencies. The article, An Institutional Defense of Antitrust Immunity for International Airline Alliances, will be published in the first issue of the 62nd volume of the Catholic University Law Review. Additionally, Sanchez’s essay, "In Defense of Incrementalism for International Aviation Emissions Regulation," will appear in the 53rd volume of the Virginia Journal of International Law Digest. The piece builds off of Sanchez's prior work on emissions regulation on an incremental global regime for reducing the airline industry’s carbon footprint by critiquing both the unilateral approach to emissions regulation (as represented by the European Union) and the ambitious, and arguably unrealistic, multilateral track promoted by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

4/3–4 – John R. Byerly, Scholar-in-Residence

John R. Byerly, formerly the State Department's longest-serving Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Affairs, was the Institute's IALI's distinguished guest and Scholar-in-Residence during the first week of April. Mr. Byerly lectured and answered students’ questions in two classes, International Trade Law and Public International Aviation Law, both taught by IALI Senior Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor Gabriel Sanchez. Following the International Trade Law class, the Institute hosted a reception, during which Mr. Byerly engaged with students and shared his views on international aviation, diplomacy, and his long career at the State Department. From 2001 until his retirement from government service, Mr. Byerly was the lead U.S. negotiator for air transport agreements, including the landmark U.S.-EU Open Skies agreement and the U.S.-Japan air transport agreement.

March

3/31 – First "Conversations" Interviews Published

The first three interviews in the Institute’s acclaimed “Conversations with Aviation Leaders” oral history project – Michael E. Levine, the late Dr. Alfred E. Kahn, and Robert L. Crandall – have been transcribed and published in a Special Edition of IALI’s journal, Issues in Aviation Law and Policy. The “Conversations” project explores the origins, history, and record of U.S. airline deregulation as told through the voices and memories of its participants. IALI Director Brian Havel opens the Special Edition with a detailed letter describing the project and the interviews that follow. Although a webcast of each “Conversations” interview is permanently available on the Institute’s website, transcripts had not been available until now. The Institute plans to publish future Special Editions of the journal containing additional transcripts from the project.

3/1 – New Article in Air & Space Law

A new article by IALI Director Brian Havel and FedEx/United Airlines Resident Research Fellow John Mulligan, The Triumph of Politics: Reflections on the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union Validating the Inclusion of Non-EU Airlines in the Emissions Trading Scheme, is the lead article in the current issue of Air and Space Law. The article critiques the CJEU's judgment in case C-366/10 Air Transport Association of America v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

February

2/7 – IATA Legal Symposium

At the 2012 IATA Legal Symposium held in Shanghai, IALI Director Brian Havel participated on a panel of legal and finance experts discussing business models and investment for the future of the airline industry.

2/2 – EUtopia Law Post

EUtopia Law, a blog devoted to developments in EU law, published Flying too high? Extraterritoriality and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme: The Air Transport Association of America Judgment, written by IALI Director Brian Havel and FedEx/United Airlines Resident Research Fellow John Mulligan. The piece analyzes and discusses the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgment in Case C-366/10, Air Transport Association of America and Others v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

January 2012

1/11 – Academic Program

For the Spring semester, Gabriel Sanchez, IALI Senior Resident Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor, is teaching two courses to the College of Law's J.D. and LL.M. students. The Public International Aviation Law course explores the laws, regulations, and policy choices affecting the complex world of global air transport and considers such topics as air traffic rights, aviation safety and security, economic regulation of airlines, and the dynamics of the U.S./EC Air Transport Agreement. The International Trade course explores the laws, policies, and economics which shape the global trade system. Particular emphasis is paid to the structure and jurisprudence of the World Trade Organization.

December 2011

12/30 – EU’s New Rules for Airline Emissions

John Mulligan, the Institute’s FedEx/United Airlines Resident Research Fellow, discussed reactions by the U.S. and China to the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme on “Living on Earth,” NPR’s environmental program.