NewYorkUniversity
LawReview
Issue

Volume 77, Number 5

November 2002

An Analysis of State Responsibility for the Chinese-American Airplane Collision Incident

Margaret K. Lewis

In this Note, Margaret Lewis revisits the Chinese-American air-crash incident of 2001 to evaluate the claims made by each nation that the other acted in violation of international law. After assembling the relevant laws that would have been applied if the matter were resolved in an international tribunal, Lewis concludes that the United States was not in contravention of any of them. She does, however, suggest that it would be best if the two countries formulated “rules of the road” to reduce the probability of repeat accidents and to avoid protracted disputes over international law like those witnessed in the instant case.