Public Prosecutor v Matsumoto

• Date: 24 November 1965
• Court: District Court (China)

Republic of China (Formosa), District Court of Taipei.

Public Prosecutor

and

Matsumoto.

Jurisdiction Over the air space Infringement of sovereignty over Convention on International Civil Aviation, 1944 The law of the Republic of China.

The Facts.On 27 October 1965 the defendant Yasuo Matsumoto, a Japanese aircraft pilot, flew a Cessna 175 plane to Taipei (China) and landed at the airport without obtaining advance approval from the Chinese Government. He was prosecuted for illegal intrusion into Chinese air space and landing at a Chinese airport in violation of Article 16 of the Chinese Civil Aviation Law.

Held: that the defendant must be sentenced to one year's imprisonment, with two years' suspension of punishment.

The Court said:

Both China and Japan are contracting parties to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.[1] In accordance with that Convention China enacted the Regulation Governing Flights over National Territory by Civil Aircraft, which provides in Article 4 that aircraft should not fly over Chinese territory without getting advance approval. Moreover, Article 16 of the Chinese Civil Aviation Law explicitly provides:

No foreign civil aircraft shall fly over, or land in, the territory of the Republic of China without obtaining special permission from the Ministry of Communications.

As the defendant has worked as an aircraft pilot for more than ten years he should have known of the existence of the Convention. Even if he does not know that Japan is a party to the Convention and does not know the relevant provisions of the Chinese Civil Aviation Law, he still cannot be exempted from criminal responsibility as the offense was committed within Chinese territory and according to Article 16 of the Chinese Criminal Code [ignorance of the law does not remit criminal liability].

The Court concluded that the defendant had infringed upon the integrity of Chinese sovereignty over the air space and the consequence of his criminal offense was not negligible. For this he should be sentenced to one year's imprisonment in accordance with Article 95 of the Chinese Civil Aviation Law.2

[¹ Article 5 of the Convention provides: Each contracting State agrees that all aircraft of the other contracting States, being aircraft not engaged in scheduled international air services...