Books
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Who Owns Outer Space?
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ISBN: 9781108497831Publication Date: 2023-04-13From Space debris to asteroid strikes to anti-satellite weapons, humanity's rapid expansion into Space raises major environmental, safety, and security challenges. In this book, Michael Byers and Aaron Boley, an international lawyer and an astrophysicist, identify and interrogate these challenges and propose actionable solutions. They explore essential questions from, 'How do we ensure all of humanity benefits from the development of Space, and not just the world's richest people?' to 'Is it possible to avoid war in Space?' Byers and Boley explain the essential aspects of Space science, international law, and global governance in a fully transdisciplinary and highly accessible way. Addressing the latest and emerging developments in Space, they equip readers with the knowledge and tools to engage in current and critically important legal, policy, and scientific debates concerning the future development of Space. -
How High the Sky?
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ISBN: 9789004366015Publication Date: 2018-12-13In How High the Sky?, Thomas Gangale explores the oldest and most important controversy in space law: how far up does national airspace go, and where does the international environment of outer space begin? Even though nations did not object to the first satellites flying over their sovereign territory, after more than six decades there is still no international agreement on how low the right of space object overflight extends, nor are there agreed legal definitions of "space object" and "space activity." Dr. Gangale brings his background as an aerospace engineer to bear in refuting long-held beliefs of the legal community, and he offers a draft international convention to settle one of the oldest and most intractable problems in space law.
Articles of Interest
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McKenzie Franck, Falling Stars and Sinking Ships: How Article VII of the Outer Space Treaty Needs Maritime Law, 35 PACE INT'l L. REV. 159 (2023).McKenzie Franck highlights that Article VII of the Outer Space Treaty lays out a structure on how states can be held liable for damages caused by celestial bodies. However, the Treaty ignores what happens if a private company causes injuries in another country or to another space craft. While there has yet to be an example of a private company causing damages from negligence under space law, Franck contends that Maritime Law may provide potential solutions. With multiple similarities between maritime and space law, already established maritime regulations can easily be used as a supplementation for space law. The article concludes with an in-depth analysis on how limitations of liability, vessel insurance, and employees' insurance may create a stable supplement to existing space law.
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Andrew Y. Lee, The Future of the Law on the Moon, 88 J. AIR L. & COM. 3 (2023).In this article, Andrew Lee argues that a commercialized Moon will require the United States to assert legislative jurisdiction (U.S. federal law taking effect), exercise adjudicatory jurisdiction (personal jurisdiction over persons and property and subject matter jurisdiction regarding controversies that arise), and install a governing body physically on the Moon. After a brief introduction of today's space industry, the article surveys the history of U.S. regulation of commercial space exploration, summarizes the current regulatory framework that governs only the launch and landing of space vehicles on Earth, and offers a more detailed analysis of the possibility of domestic jurisdiction in outer space, delimited by binding international space treaties and customs.
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Steven Freeland, Peaceful Purposes - Governing the Military Uses of Outer Space, 18 EUR. J.L. REFORM 35 (2016).Professor Steven Freeland discusses the application of many of the foundational United Nations Space Treaties and the laws of war to the use of outer space during armed conflict and offers some reflections as to what is required to properly address the issue. Namely, Professor Freeland examines two of the foundational principles guiding all of Space law: the use of outer space for peaceful purposes and the non-appropriation principle. The article contends that clear definitions must be developed for concepts such as 'space weapons', and 'military uses' and, perhaps most significantly, 'peaceful purposes'. Moreover, the article finds that the fundamental issue of 'where space begins' should be definitively resolved, so as to counter any arguments that outer space is an area akin to the territory of a state for the purposes of national security.