What is space law
Space law is the laws which govern space exploration around the world. These space laws are propounded by the UN in its general assembly and the United Nation Committees on the peaceful uses of outer space was set up by the general assembly in 1959 to govern the exploration and use of space for the benefit of using the outer space. There are five treaties on space law that were established by COPUOS: they are liability treaties , Outer space treaty, rescue agreement , registration agreement , moon agreement. Space is also said to be the common heritage of mankind. There is a need to amend the new laws for space as the technology advances in the field of space that raises new threads to space. There are many country who didn’t ratified the space law in there laws
Emerging threads
Commercialization of space industries and arising legal issues. The famous company like virgin, spacex, blue origins building the own commercial space flight what are the legal frame word governing becomes a standing in front the entire world or these five treaties are enough to govern them. In the near future there is a probability of using their satellite as a weapon to crash these commercial space flights in space and there are no other treaties to govern it except seeking the to the international court of justice for the remedies. And what if a baby is born in space what will be the place of the born baby how to determine these legal issues. So the laws that need to be amended are to be enacted for these purposes. The law that governs the extraction takes part in outer space. Who are superior authority for the space to govern the private party NASA or UNOOSA
Why International civil aviation organization is not applicable to spacecraft
The ICAO is the organization of the governing authorities for civil aviation and in order to organize and support the intensive international co-operation which the fledgling global air transport network would require. It is the uniform code of conduct for all the aircraft. There was the definition of an aircraft, laid down in Annex 1 of the paris convention of 1919, the first treaty on air law. It would cover not only aeroplanes, but also gliders, balloons, cable balloons and helicopters. The very same definition founds its place in Annex 7 of the Chicago Convention of 1944, which replaced the Paris Convention, but on 8 November 1967 the wording was changed by ICAO as follows: 'Aircraft is any machine that can derive support from the reactions of the air other than the reactions of the air against the earth's surface.' The result was that hovercraft were excluded from the category of 'aircraft' .27 Space object; The first legal description of the term 'space object' can be found in the Liability Convention. According to Article 1(d): 'a space object includes component parts of a space object as well as its launch vehicles and parts thereof. The Registration Convention also uses this term in its Article 1(b) and thus gives it a wider scope than the formula used in Article VIII of the Outer Space Treaty. Therefore as far as jurisdiction and control are concerned, a 'space object' is an 'object launched into outer space'. Kopal elaborated this conclusion saying that as 'Space Objects should be considered any object launched by man for a mission into outer space, be it into orbit around the Earth, or beyond into planetary space to and around the Moon and other celestial bodies of the Solar system, or into deep space.
If ICAO applied to the space object ?
The space object where to be governed by the ICAO then all rules applied to the civil aviation will applied to the spacecraft and there is no need to go to ICJ for the remedies these are sorted out in the ICAO tribunal. There should a amendment for the spacecraft specially for uncertain come to the space craft and the exploration of the space will wide the scope of the civil aviation also. In present scenario the pilots are governed by the ICAO and the astronauts are governed by the FAA. The code of conduct for both the pilot and the Astronaut will be unified
My opinion on the space law
This article is based on a moot court problem where in the future there is a possibility for the countries to fight over space and advance for space tourism. And expansion of colonies in space. What laws can govern them in space. And the present laws are weakening the future thread arising in the space industry. In current trends the hyper entrepreneurs are investing unimaginable amounts for space tourism. There are laws for the space but they are not binding the commercialization of the space. The common heritage of mankind cannot be taken over by some individual leisure.