The future evolution of civil aviation at the threshold of the 21st century will depend not only on the design of safer, bigger, energy efficient and environmentally acceptable aircraft, but in particular on the evolution of infrastructures generally described as ""air navigation systems"". The essence of future air navigation systems will be the introduction of satellite-based communication, navigation and surveillance for air traffic management purposes on a global basis.;
The current challenge for the international community will be to design and adopt a workable institutional framework and legal regulation which permits the global introduction and operation of these systems on a worldwide basis.;This work contains the report of Professor Guldiman to the ICAO Legal Committee, together with the relevant texts established by the competent ICAO bodies, and the Master of Law thesis by Stefan A. Kaiser submitted to McGill University of Montreal, Canada.