IATA World Legal Symposium makes its way to Shanghai this February

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the 2025 edition of the World Legal Symposium (WLS) will examine the legal implications of evolving forces shaping aviation.

Many of the regulations currently in place were not envisioned in the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) signed in 1944. 

The symposium is slated for 18th to 20th February in Shanghai, China.

Spearheaded by China Eastern Airlines, this will be the second time that Shanghai is hosting the WLS, with the first in 2012.

According to IATA corporate secretary and acting general counsel Leslie MacIntosh: “Shanghai is a particularly significant location to host the IATA WLS.  A decade ago, IATA supported the establishment of the Shanghai International Aviation Court of Arbitration (SHIAC), the first of its kind in China. Moreover, it has grown into a major aviation hub serving nearly 300 destinations. The impressive developments in Shanghai will serve as an important reminder of the Chicago Convention’s relevance as our industry faces the challenges to provide safe, sustainable, and reliable air transport to people and economies that are eager to connect.”

Points for discussion

Among the topics on the 2025 WLS agenda are the use of artificial intelligence (AI), alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods, cybersecurity, and the proliferation of privacy and consumer protection regulations.

MacIntosh said: ‘’Having just marked the 80th anniversary of aviation’s foundational document, the Chicago Convention, it’s appropriate for the aviation legal community to review how it has withstood the test of time. Over that time, aviation has evolved into a safe, global mass transportation system on which over five billion passengers will rely in 2025. That speaks volumes about the importance of effective global standards which underpinned this growth and transformation.”

The evolving nature of global regulations in the aviation sector continue to raise questions.

Key among these is how will the Convention and its system of annexes guide us in the face of new forces shaping aviation like AI and ADR mechanisms.

It will also address the proliferation of regulation around privacy and consumer protection, the continuously metastasising threat of cybersecurity, as well as whether or not the regulations in the Chicago Convention can keep pace with changes that are taking place? 

MacIntosh concluded by saying: “This year’s WLS will take a critical look beyond the Chicago Convention to the new and the unresolved.”