Criminal Liability of Pilots in Aviation Accident Cases

Criminal Liability of Pilots in Aviation Accident Cases, a singular book, through a comprehensive exploration of the tense interplay between the paradigms of Safety, Transparency, and Legal Certainty, thoroughly examines the setting in which adjudicating the conduct of pilots in accident situations demands a clear legal discipline that can be termed ‘criminal air law’ – a special regulatory domain that provides a lens through which to analyse the intersection of aviation law and criminal liability, a particularly complex field of legal inquiry. In the international civil aviation community, pilots are identified as ‘frontline operators’ and are thus deemed to be principal actors. Hence, their role in the context of accident and incident investigation is important.

Shedding clear light on the intricacies of pilots’ criminal liability by analysing global air law regimes, State practice, and domestic legislation – including case law evidencing the application of such rules – the book identifies the roles played by the following and more in determining the criminal liability of pilots:

• delicate interaction and clash among paradigms of Safety, Transparency and Legal Certainty
• the ever-evolving concept of safety under the Chicago Convention 1944 and Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) of ICAO, showing the interaction and clash of paradigms and the complex balance between international obligations and guidance and national legal autonomy, and
• how existing domestic legal regimes – specifically the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Korea, jurisdictions that demonstrate the most effective implementation level of SARPs and the most significant case law – define the criminal liability of pilots through air law, criminal law and criminal air law and jurisdictional discrepancies and challenges in uniformly regulating and adjudicating pilots’ conduct

The author also introduces a novel and valuable collective–subjective approach to foreseeability and criminal liability, based on a survey among pilots of shared professional understanding.

Given the complexity of accidents and incidents involving the conduct of pilots who are at the centre of the operation at all times, this book’s value is significant. Its recommendations, designed to create awareness and promote coherence and clarity on the criminal liability of pilots based on legal parameters, will provide practical proposals for ICAO, national authorities, organisations, and practitioners and scholars in enhancing clarity and practicality in determining pilots’ criminal liability. It will equip lawyers, prosecutors, regulators, and policymakers to approach aviation accident cases with improved legal and technical awareness.