The Recognition of the Chinese Government and the Convention on International Civil Aviation

This article traces the membership and representation of Chinain the International Civil Aviation Organization. It examineswhich of the two governments claiming to represent China, theGovernment of the Republic of China (ROC) or the Governmentof the People's Republic of China (PRC), has, at any one time,been regarded as competent to exercise China's membership rightsunder the Convention on International Civil Aviation (ChicagoConvention). In particular, the article asks which governmentcan today validly designate "customs airports" in China, includingTaiwan, and exercise the various other rights in respect ofnon-scheduled and scheduled flights referred to in Articles5 and 6 of the Chicago Convention. It explains why airlinescan operate direct international air services to non-designatedairports in Taiwan without the special permission or other authorizationof the Government of the PRC, despite the latter being regardedas having complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspaceabove Taiwan.     

The European Union-Turkey Controversy over Cyprus or a Tale of Two Treaty Declarations

When the European Council in 2004 decided to open accessionnegotiations with Turkey, it linked Turkey's accession processwith the Cyprus problem and made the signature of an AdditionalProtocol to the EC-Turkey Customs Union Agreement extendingthis Agreement to the ten new Member States of the Union, includingthe Republic of Cyprus, a precondition for the start of accessionnegotiations. Not having been recognizing the Republic of Cyprussince 1963, Turkey had to avoid everything that could be interpretedas a recognition of the Republic of Cyprus when concluding theAdditional Protocol. This led Turkey in September 2005 to makea "Declaration on Cyprus" when signing the Protocol which, inturn, triggered a counter declaration by the European Communityand its Member States. The two declarations do not qualify asreservations but are general statements of policy or, at best,interpretative declarations that do not have any effect on thesubstance of the Protocol and that are not binding upon theparties.