When Your Friend Asks Whether Trump can Block Venezuela’s Airspace, Here is Your 1 Minute Answer
By Yusra Suedi (PhD, Assistant Professor of International Law at University of Manchester)
He’s at it again! (You’ve got to love this man for giving the SAIL Blog so much material.)
Trump just announced: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”.
But…
The U.S. can’t unilaterally close the airspace of another country under international law
Under Article 1 of the Chicago Convention (1944), “Every state has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory.”
That means only Venezuela can close or regulate Venezuelan airspace.
The U.S. can only restrict U.S. aircrafts to avoid Venezuelan airspace as it controls its own aviation operators.
The only situation where another country could do this is if Trump went through the United Nations Security Council and the Council established a no-fly zone over Venezuela, similar to those imposed over Libya in 2011.
So this is simply advice for others not to fly there. Legally speaking, the U.S. cannot actually close that airspace.
The U.S. can’t threaten to use force against Venezuela
Don’s announcement threatens the possibility of military conflict inside Venezuela.
This is also illegal, folks (are you seeing a pattern?).
Article 2(4) UN Charter says that UN Members (which includes the U.S.) shall refrain from even threatening the use of force.
And the International Court of Justice has made clear that when the use of force would be illegal, a threat to use that force is also illegal (Nuclear Weapons, para. 246).
Since I have already shown that the use of force here would be illegal, any corresponding threats by Trump would be illegal as well.
So, what now?
Venezuela’s airspace looks pretty empty right now.
And I get it; no country wants to risk its aircraft being attacked if a conflict is about to break out.
But if countries placed a higher priority on respecting international law (or read the SAIL Blog 😄), they would collectively push back against the U.S. and say, “What you are doing is illegal, and we will proceed to ignore it.”
The rules are there, people! We just have to follow them.
What do you think about the U.S.-Venezuela situation? Comment below!