1.4 State Sovereignty in International Air Law

The doctrine's anatomy: the airspace-above-territory as the state's complete and exclusive domain — the entry-and-transit rights exist only by consent (the contrast with the innocent passage of the sea-law — Public International Law-I/II's comparison, the exam's favourite); the vertical extent's question (where the sovereignty ends and the outer space begins — Unit 8.3's delimitation debate); the sovereignty's exercises: the airspace's closure (the bans-and-notams), the traffic rights' grant-and-denial (the ASAs' world), the aircraft's interception-and-forced-landing (the law's strict faces), and the state's responsibility for the unsafe-or-unruly aircraft (the security duties). The Nepali face: the sovereign airspace above Nepal's territory — the CAAN's control (Unit 6), the routes-and-rights negotiations with the neighbours (the India-interface's long story), and the sovereignty's modern tension: the economics' pull toward the open skies against the flag's protection (Unit 6.2's debate).