While some countries in the world are land-locked, the State of Qatar is ‘air-locked’: its airspace is surrounded on all sides by the respective zones of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. On June 5, 2017, these same three states broke off diplomatic relations with Qatar, and closed their airspaces to all flights flying in and out of the country, with the exception of a single air corridor through Bahraini airspace. This post looks at the international legal framework of this issue, and whether these states have the legal right to enforce such prohibitions.
Continue reading “The Freedoms of the Air and the Qatar Diplomatic Crisis”