Principles-Based Guide

In August 2023, the legal advisory panel of AWG released the Principles-Based Guide to the 5th and final version of the Official Commentary (OC 5th) to the Cape Town Convention (the ‘Principles-Based Guide’).

This Guide has been prepared by the Legal Advisory Panel of Aviation Working Group as an aid to practitioners, administrative officials, and courts in identifying relevant authority in the 5th edition of Official Commentary (Official Commentary) relating to the most frequently encountered questions from a transactional perspective arising in the application and interpretation of the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (Convention) and Protocol thereto on Matters Specific to Aircraft Objects (Protocol, and together with the Convention, CTC).

It does so by setting out a topical index to the Official Commentary in the form of main principles found in or underlying the texts, which are also summarized, and links such principles to specific paragraphs in the Official Commentary.

This Guide is intended as a practical companion text to help efficiently navigate the Official Commentary. It does not seek to modify or interpret the Official Commentary, which is the sole authoritative text for interpreting the CTC. It is recommended that all who use this Guide do so with a written or electronic copy of the Official Commentary in close proximity.

While this Guide was produced with the approval of the author of the Official Commentary, Professor Sir Roy Goode, and its publishers, UNIDROIT, that does not imply endorsement of its content. Rather, the organization, determination of the principles, and summaries in this Guide are solely the work of the Legal Advisory Panel of Aviation Working Group. It is an open source, no cost document prepared for the benefit of the legal and aviation community.

If the link above does not work, the Guide can be downloaded here. The guide and master citation document should be saved into the same location on your computer in order to see the full functionality for the hyperlinks.