Institute of air and space law AEROHELP
90 years is not only a long life span for a human being – for scientific institutions it is also a considerable age. Few scientific institutions in the world are older than 100 years and for sure such specialized institutions like the Institute for Air and later also for Space Law are certainly of particular interest. As will be shown in the following the Institute’s history goes back to 1925. It was founded in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), then moved to Leipzig and later to Berlin. It was re-founded in 1951 by Alex Meyer at the University of Cologne. From Prof. Alex Meyer we have the famous statement:
“When, after the end of World War II, air traffic was an issue of increasing importance, the question of re-establishing a German institute of air law was soon raised independent of the issue of the recovery of air sovereignty by the Federal Republic of Germany, because the scholarly analysis of air law is of fundamental importance to air traffic as such. Moreover, even at that time the view was justly held that the exclusion of Germany from air traffic could by no means be a permanent one.”
It is true that with these lines the late Prof. Meyer expressed the basic concept that had led to the establishment of the Institute. It did not start as an Institute but as a “Research Department”: As the sole German institute of air law, the Cologne institution was supposed to demonstrate at a world-wide scale the growing importance of air traffic, and the increasing role Germany would play in it, despite the then still lasting prohibition of undertaking own air traffic. In this respect, the Institute – then Department – was regarded as the successor to the earlier “Institut für Luftrecht” (Institute of Air Law), which took its way as indicated from 1925 to 1945.
Later it was absolutely natural that the field of space law was added to the research and consultation field of the Institute. These are now the two basic areas of interest that the Institute has. It celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2015 as an internationally recognized center of research and as a place of consultation, where air and space law at national European and international level is taught and in a row with the few other research institutions of its kind in the world. We are proud to present on our the interesting history of this unique Institute.
During the 30th Annual European Air Law Association (EALA) Conference, November 9, 2018 in Brussels, Belgium, the Director of the Institute of Air Law, Space Law and Cyber Law at the University of Cologne Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Stephan Hobe and the Director of the Institute of Air and Space Law AEROHELP Oleg Aksamentov signed the Memorandum of Understanding to promote the mutual academic cooperation between the Institute of Air Law, Space Law and Cyber Law at the University of Cologne and the Institute of Air and Space Law AEROHELP as partners in the field of joint symposium, seminar, publication and exchange of data relating to International Air and Space Law.
