Aviation incidents and the earth-based victims : a review of Anglo-Canadian tort law

The dawn of aviation may have been universally ushered in on 4 June 1783 when two French brothers--Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier--in a pioneering effort, publicly flew their self-made hot-air balloon (built with linen and paper) up to about 1,830 metres: but for many centuries before then, English law had regulated the delictual relations of its subjects in England and its other realms beyond the Seas, including Canada.With the ever-changing circumstances of the World, engendered particularly by developments in science and technology, as by inconstancy in the socio-political disposition of Mankind, the adaptability of the said regulatory scheme assumes a perennially major focal point within the legal systems concerned.This thesis reviews the modus operandi of the adaptation of Anglo-Canadian tort law to the uses of aviation, in the context of associated damages occasioned to persons and property on the Earth-surface