My question to you is whether individuals have any rights to the airspace above the land they own. Can I, for example, declare the space above my house a no-flight zone (I know that it would be virtually impossible to enforce this), or can this only be done on a national level? –Dawood Salam, Toronto, Ontario
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I understand your feelings. You paid good money for that house. Why shouldn’t you be allowed to shoot down bothersome aircraft flying overhead? Well, under the enlightened policy prevailing in the Middle Ages, you would have. For centuries the common-law doctrine was Cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad coelum et ad inferos–literally, “To whomsoever the soil belongs, he owns also to the sky and to the depths.” In other words, you had complete control over everything above and below your property. You want to declare a no-flight zone over your manse? Go right ahead. True, during the Middle Ages there were pretty much no flights, period. But it’s the principle that counts.
If it’s of any comfort, usque ad coelum didn’t completely disappear; it was merely transferred to nations. The 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation declared that each country had sovereignty over the airspace above its territory. Thus Soviet leaders were within their rights when they ordered the destruction of commercial flight KAL 007 after it strayed over their territory in 1983. Sure, the loss of hundreds of innocent people was unfortunate. But you can be sure the next guys who flew near Russia brought a map.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration by Slug Signorino.
