OXFORD,
Miss. – Two University of Mississippi law students will join aviation
law professionals from countries across the world as speakers for the
symposium “Aviation Legal Capacity Building in Developing Countries,”
scheduled Tuesday (March 31) on the Oxford campus.
“Our speakers
are distinguished international aviation attorneys currently advising
their own governments and partner governments on the legal issues
associated with air transport, law and policy,” said Jacqueline Serrao,
associate director of the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and
Space Law at the UM law school. “We are also pleased to present two law
students who have been working with the center on researching the civil
aviation laws of the African continent, along with government
organizational structure and development.”
The symposium is to explore the policy, legal and regulatory challenges that developing nations face when establishing and maintaining international compliance with United Nations’ standards and recommended practices in aviation safety, Serrao said.
“The challenge to maintain aviation safety while surviving in an industry which has been deeply affected by the global economic downturn, regulatory barriers to entry and diminishing financing is a challenge that all countries face, but which might be felt stronger by developing countries,” she said.
The public is welcome to the symposium, which begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Mezzanine Level of the library in the Lamar Law Center.
Besides Serrao, participants include attorney India Pinkney, Office of the Chief Counsel for International Affairs and Legal Policy within the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration; attorney Juan Carlos Salazar, air transport adviser to the General Civil Aviation Authority for the United Arab Emirates; Rebecca Beckett, third-year law student from Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Christy Hancock, third-year law student from Baton Rouge, La.
“Attendees will learn that students can have an impact in places around the globe by using their legal skills before they even graduate,” Hancock said. “They will also hear about some of the challenges we faced when researching developing countries and the researcher may have to draw conclusions based on alternative sources or little information.”
The challenges of finding the legal documents of these African nations demonstrate the need for a comprehensive catalog of developing countries’ laws, Beckett said.
“It would behoove the United States and other similarly situated countries to find, translate and compile the laws of all aviation participants so that the information is readily available to the aviation industry as a whole,” she said.
Joanne Gabrynowicz, NCRSASL director, said, “Attendees will gain rare, first-person accounts into the legal complexities of a critically important – but severely challenged – global industry. This is truly a 21st century legal problem.”
Serrao has worked with countries across the world – including Nicaragua, Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Malawi and Sierra Leone – to help countries and organizations develop aviation laws and codes. Last year, she worked in Mongolia with a start-up air carrier, and in Nicaragua, where she is helping the country draft new maritime laws. She also has led a team hired by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to draft their economic civil aviation law, and she was selected by the United Nations and USAID to write the civil aviation laws for the government of Kosovo.
For more information on the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law, visit http://www.spacelaw.olemiss.edu. For more information on the UM School of Law, go to http://www.law.olemiss.edu.
For more information on the symposium or for assistance related to a disability, call 662-915-6857.