Drones and legality around air rights

July 31, 2024

Is the airspace above our heads a common good open to exploitation, including by drones, or is it an extension of the land below, subject to the same ownership rights? Common law established the principle that land ownership extends indefinitely upwards[1]. (“Cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad coelum, is the maxim of the law, upwards; therefore no man may erect any building, or the like, to overhang another’s land: … the word “land” includes not only the face of the earth, but every thing under it, or over it.” Blackstone Commentaries Vol,2 Bk 2 p18). The long-standing legal doctrine that land ownership extended infinitely upwards remained unchallenged until the dawn of aviation in 1903. The subsequent surge in air travel and international pressures[2] compelled the U.S. Congress to establish a public right-of-way in the airspace above the nation’s territory.

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