The ability of creditors to establish and enforce claims against a debtor is crucial for the financing of highly valuable moveable assets such as modern aircraft. There is a direct correlation between the length of time from default of the operator to repossession of the aircraft and the acceleration of the risks of exposure of the creditor. The legal framework of the Cape Town Convention and Aviation Protocol attempts to introduce a legally certain and speedy enforcement system. But a manifestly common law approach is reflected in the Cape Town Convention, and a number of common law concepts, familiar to common law traditions but new to civil law traditions in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, were in fact implanted into the laws of these countries. Notwithstanding the conclusions of the Aviation Working Group regarding the effective implementation of Convention remedies into the national laws of the three States of review, aircraft repossessions are still exceptional there and may pose unexpected practical difficulties, mostly in Russia and Ukraine. Thus, further efforts of the national rule makers are necessary for the achievement of the fulfilment of one of the main principles of the Cape Town System - the prompt enforcement principle.
Air and Space Law