Regulation of Commercial Space Transport: The Astrocizing of ICAO (SpringerBriefs in Law)

Issues Involved 1.1 Air Space and Outer Space In 1944, when the war was coming to an end, President Roosevelt invited the nations of the world to a conference in Chicago with a view to establishing a global regime for the burgeoning commercial aviation sector that would flourish after the war. The President said in his invitation: "I do not believe that the world today can afford to wait several years for its air communications. There is no reason why it should. Increasingly, the airplanes will be in existence...". At the present time, this message could be applied to commercial space transport with just a change of words to adapt to the increasingly developing space tourism sector.It would not be true to say that ICAO has hitherto not addressed the issue of space transport. The ICAO Assembly, at its 16th Session held in Buenos Aires from 3 to 26 September 1968, adopted Resolution A 16-11 (Participation by ICAO in Programmes for the Exploration and Use of Outer Space). Recognizing that the events of the past years were of great interest to ICAO, since many of the activities affect matters falling within ICAO's competence under the provisions of the Chicago Convention, and that the United Nations had recognized the competence of certain specialized agencies that could perform various useful functions and such interest had to be welcomed and encouraged, the Assembly resolved that ICAO be responsible for stating the position of international civil aviation on all related outer space matters and for stating international civil aviation's particular requirements in respect of application of space technology.Commercial space flight is here, and it is a foregone conclusion that it will take off in earnest within the next few years. The issue is whether we are prepared with the necessary legislative and infrastructural base to launch these flights in sustained progression. Unlike the Chicago Convention of 1944 which was adopted at the Chicago Conference pursuant to the initiative of President Roosevelt, there is no multilateral legal instrument that provides comprehensively for commercial space transportation. When commercial air transport was in its incipient stages the world This book provides a look at the various nuances of the commercial aspects of space transport and offers a workable and practical legal and regulatory approach to be taken by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The book also addresses the perceived lack of wisdom in neglecting to consider the basic legal structure of a regulatory regime for commercial space transport as a first step and goes on to analyze ways and means of using the existing legal instruments pertaining to international civil aviation as an analogous system that can be moulded into a separate and cohesive set of multilateral legal instruments that could apply to commercial space transport. As expected, commercial space transport has taken off with a flourish. It is now evident that, from sub-orbital flights to mining asteroids, this industry will grow exponentially. Signs of its importance are reflected by various international conferences being convened on the subject both by academia and the international community. The only snag is the lack of a regulatory instrument or in the least a contrived approach to a definitive legal regime that would provide a structure, purpose and direction to commercial space transport. This blatant lacuna and neglect has resulted in the emergence of various theories by academics and a half hearted look at the subject by the international legal community. Front Matter....Pages i-x Issues Involved....Pages 1-13 Safety and Efficiency Issues....Pages 15-30 Economic and Social Issues....Pages 31-58 ICAO for Commercial Space Travel?....Pages 59-104 Some Preliminary Space Law Principles for Consideration by ICAO....Pages 105-112 Legal Legitimacy of ICAO and Direction to Be Taken....Pages 113-143 Conclusion....Pages 145-158