Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-06
LEGAL PUZZLES OF THE AIR.
Flying Machines Making New Prob
lens for Lawyers.
INTERESTING QUESTIONS UP
international Conference Already
Proposed by FrAnce-PubIic ana
Private RIEbts-Traffic Rules
-Matter of JurisdIctiOn.

Matter of JurisdIctiOn.
Airships have already got into the
courts. The wrigh brothers have their
Injunction. The case might have its coun-
terpart in regard to any patent rights and
is scarcely epoch making from the legal
point of view. But in a 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 midair.
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 warlike operations, will re-
quire settlement.
Franco something more than a year ago
proposed an international conference to
tackle these questions. OF course when
that conference takes place II will make
some rules that will be abided by, wind
and weather permitting. UP in Maine they
have a habit in the backwoods OF keep
ing a pot on the stove for the odds and
ends. Occasionally they cook up the mess
and II It is good it Is slumgullion, but II
it 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
ftrsO 80 aAu,,t Ah..A nNn~raNN1AaI - ~
ferences-the result Is always a pothellion
they think; but even pothellion fills a
stomach.
New Field for Lawyers.
No doubt in ten years aerial jurisdiction
and the contretemps Of the aerial domain
VIII fern 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 Il. Meih have
produced monographs, Paul Fauchille
wrote a book as long as 1901 and the insti-
tute of internatlonal. law, the academy of
international law experts, has passed
upon a tentative set Of rules. The aero
nautio congress is figuring on traffic regu-
lations and suchlke, including rules Of the
ETHEREAL roads. And the diligent writer's
{ 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 when
one balloonist airshipmite ruffled the tenn
per of another by throwing out ballast on
him.
Any amateur lawyer will quote you the
maxim; "Cujus est solum, ejus est usque
nd raa1hrn - GffVVho4a "a fha land hfa ~
is even to heavenly II he's green or
~thoughtless enough he'll say that settles
the case; it simply places aviation in the
Same class as any act on solid ground.
1t is noteworthy that there has been some
hedging on that question. Lord Chief JUS
tice Peterborough in England was once
2 asked IL trespass would lie for passing
through the air in balloons over the land
OF another. He did not reply. Another
English court was confronted with the
same case in Kenyon against Hart, and
\ again discretion was the better part OF
judgment.
Whose is the ART
Air is always on the move and travels
in a direct current, as a stream flows
Suppose a balloonlst ascends on his OWL
property, passes over the land Of another
in the identical air in which he started
e. &N0 " oA ~ ~ ehhNoN ~ ROooS3
sions of the other. Would he be guilty o
trespass9 Or is a person liable to prosecu
ton who watches a base ball game from
the air without paying admission2
But the law that will finally apply to tn,
aerial domain in municipal cases will b
fairly simple as compared with the diff
f~iculties that arise internationally. 50 ia
as known, the first appearance OF air
craft In diplomacy was something les
than a year ago when France spoke a littl
piece to her dear German ~neighborS
Andre Mevil, a Partisan journalist, pub
lished an article in the Echo de Paris Il
which he stated hat from April 10, 19O'
until November Of that year sixteen Ger
man balloons containing fifteen Teutoni
military officers had made landings o
French soil. NJ. Mevll naively inquired
this just happened so, and suggested tina
ballooning to a trained man offered a
excellent opportunity to make interestin
observations OF forts and other privat
things.
Within a week the French ambassado
at Berlin drew the attention Of the Germa
government TO the repeated landings Of II
balloons across the border. II was doubt
less by chance that the military departmer
OF the Berlin government replied, but
was from that source that there came tn
assurance that Germany was taking meas
ures to prevent the crossing OF the line b
Its airbags.
Russia solves One Point.
Along about the same time a Silesia
dirigible was sailing along about a mi
from the Russian frontier. Evidently Il
Muscovite artillerymen in that distri,
were practicing at the time, for five shot
whizzed around the aerostat. The latt,
was flying the German flag and '1ande
safely on German soil" Since then Russil
Workmanship has shown an improvemer
by reason OF the frequency with whiC
It has been tested on moving aerial target
There are other important matters tn