ECJ Advocate General releases opinion on extension of EU ETS to cover international aviation

On 6 October 2011 the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) issued a press release and non-binding legal opinion on the case (C-366/10) brought by the Air Transport Association of America and Others (see previous post).

Reaction from interested parties the same day included statements from:

• Air Transport Association (ATA)
• International Air Transport Association (IATA)
• Association of European Airlines (AEA)

Media coverage of the opinion and related reaction included:

• Financial Post reporting the Canadian Government position
• The Washington Post 
• The Economist 
• Air Cargo World 

While airline opposition might be expected, of much greater significance is the reaction of foreign governments.

As might be expected, the opinion has been of considerable interest to international law academics. Aviation Law Prof Blog from DePaul University in Chicago has been providing commentary and links to other work:

• Advocate General claims EU not bound by Chicago Convention
• Functional succession theory and ramifications of EU exemption from Chicago Convention
• Advocate General opinion charts new ground on extraterritorial jurisdiction over environmental issues
• Advocate General opinion finds no legal impediment to unilateral emissions action
• Does ETS constitute a tax? 

Canada signs expanded air agreement with Japan

On 1 October 2011 the Canadian Ministers of International Trade and Transport announced that Canada had negotiated new air services arrangements with Japan (see previous post).