Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-06
LEGAL PUZZLES OF THE AIR
Machines Making New Prob
lens for Lawyers.
SOME INTERESTING QUESTIONS UP
international Conference Already
Proposed by France-PuBIic and
Private RiEhts-Traffic uIe
Matter OF Jurisdiction.

Matter OF JurisdictiOn.
Airships have already got into the
courts. The Wright brothers have their
injunction. The case might have Its coun-
terpart in regard 20 any patent rights and
is scarcely epoch making from the legal
point of view. But in q few months or
years Judges will have TO add the air TO
their present domains OF the earth and the
sea. Aerial Jurisprudence will be as in
dividual as automobile Jurisprudence has
already become.
The aeroplanes will collide In midsir,
Foreign dirigibles in Europe will land on
alien soil, things that fly will muss up
crops or commit breaches Of peace and
order heretofore unheard OF. Communi-
ties that don't like flying machines any
better than they do automobiles Will set
traps. Smugglers will take to the air and
will have to be dealt with in particular
ways. international aerial trade Will have
to be regulated. And hundreds OF other
complications. not counting the special
difficulties Of warilke operations, will re-
quire settlement.
France something more than a year ago
proposed an international conference to
tackle these questions. OF course when
AAA1N III NNNNa kA@E1 - NAA 1870
some rules that will be abided by, wind
and weather permitting. UP in Maine they
have q habit in the OF keep
ing a pot on the stove for the odds and
ends. Occasionally they cook up the mess
and II It is good IL is slumgullion, but II
IL is bad It is pothellion. Which ever way
It turns out the hunters and guides and
lumbermen eat It just the same. Now, in
the opinion of some people there are no
two ways about these International con-
ferences-the result is always a pothellion
they think; but even pothellion fills a
stomach.
New Field for
70 doubt IN ten years serial jurisdiction
and the contretemps OF the aerial domain
Will form as distinct a branch OF law as
admiralty now does. Moreover there is
rapidly arising a literature on the legal
relations of the balloonist and the aero
planiste to the plodding world beneath.
Friedrich Greunwald and f. Meili have
produced monographs, Paul Fauchille
wrote a book as long as 1901 and the insti-
tute of international law. the academy OF
international law experts, has passed
upon a tentative set Of rules. The aero
nautic congress is figuring on traffic regu-
lations and suchlike, including rules Of the
ETHEREAL roads. And the diligent writers
I to the editor of the London Times have
; got busy along this line, to say nothing OF
the nightmares that common ordinary law.
yers have been enjoying when their dreams
took the form of adjusting damages wher
one balloonist airshipmite ruffled the tenn
per of another by throwing out ballast OF
him.
Any amateur lawyer will quote you thu
maxim: "Cujus est solum, ejus est usqu'
ad ooelam," CC'Whose Is the land, his 4
is even to heavenly II he's green d
thoughtless enough he'll say that settles
the case; it simply places aviation in tn,
same class as any act on solid ground
II is noteworthy that there has been som'
hedging on that question. Lord Chief Jus
tice Peterborough in England was once
asked IL trespass would lie for passing
through the air in balloons over the LIANT
OF another. He did not reply. Anothe
English court was confronted with tn,
same case in Kenyon against Hart, ant
again discretion was the better part o
judgment
whose IL the ART
Air is always on the move and travel
in a direct current as a stream flows
Suppose a balloonist ascends on his ow
property, passes over the land Of anothe
In the identical air in which he starte
and by an overt act damages the posses
sions OF the other. Would he be guilty c
trespass2 Or is a person liable to prosecu
ton who watches a base ball game froI
the air without paying admission?
But the law that will finally apply to tn
aerial domain in municipal cases will /
fairly simple as compared with the dt
ficulties that arise internationally. 50 ii
as known, the first appearance Of ali
- -.
thar a year ago when France spoke a lItt
piece to her dear German neighbor
Andre Mevil, a Partisan journalist, pull
lished an article in the Echo de Paris
which he stated that from April 16, IC
until November OF that year sixteen &c
man balloons containing fifteen Teuton
military officers had made landings {
French soil. NJ. Mevil naively inquired
this just happened so, and suggested tn
ballooning to a trained man offered q
excellent opportunity to make interestir
observations OF forts and other priva
things.
Within a week the French ambassad,
at Berlin drew the attention Of the Germs
government to the repeated landings Of /
balloons across the border. II was doub
less by chance that the military departing
OF the Berlin government replied, but
was from that source that there came Il
assurance that Germany was taking mea
ures TO prevent the crossing Of the line
It's airbags.
Russia Solves One Point.
Along about the same time a Silesi
dirigible was sailing along about a m
from the Russian frontier. Evidently [
Muscovite artillerymen in that distri
were practicing at the time. for five she
whizzed around the aerostat. The latt
was flying the German flag and land
safely on German soil" Since then Russi
Workmanship has shown an improveme
by reason OF the frequency with viii
1t has been tested on moving aerial large
There are other important matters III