Excerpt from International Law Situations, With Solutions and Notes, 1938

The introduction of aircraft as a means of warfare greatly modified the conduct of war upon the earth surface, on the water as well as on land. The earlier rules for warfare were concerned with surface combat. These rules could not in every instance be extended by analogy to aerial warfare, be cause the forms of warfare were not analogous. There was an attempt on the part of some writers to extend the three mile maritime jurisdiction doctrine to the superjacent air. In this attempt the early recognition of the fact that the law of gravity did not act horizontally and vertically in the same manner, destroyed the analogy. Differences in Speed and in other respects introduced other complications in attempts to extend maritime and land rules to the air. Aircraft were coming more and more to be used in war; therefore, rules had to be devised. The World War expe riences and problems contributed valuable basal data for the determination of the nature of possible regulation of use of aircraft. The equipment of aircraft with radio introduced other problems. (international Law Situations, 1936, p.

Can legal' restraints on air warfare be made 2' The feeling has been prevalent in some quarters that efiorts to curb the use of aircraft in war are doomed to. Failure because this new weapon is so powerful that no belligerent would be willing to restrict the employment of this military arm. The devastation and destruction which airplanes may bring about, so the argument runs, will be so efiec tive in bringing the opponent to terms that here after the sanctions for restraint will no longer be operative. Further, the. Possibilities of totali tarian wars between rival ideological groups makes it appear to some people that curbs would be of no value. This hypothesis that ruthlessness will pay and that legal restrictions will be foot less, deserves examination.

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