Above Sovereignty: Legal Challenges In The Governance Of Air And Outer Space
- IJLLR Journal
- 10 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Divyasree. K, Reva University, Yelhanka, Bengaluru
ABSTRACT
The application and implementation of air and space laws are severely hampered by the speed at which aviation and space technologies are developing, which has outpaced the development of worldwide legal structures. Although the 1944 Chicago Convention largely governs air law, Emerging issues like private business operations, dual-use technologies, threats to cybersecurity, and space debris are becoming more difficult for both the Space Treaty of 1967 and its successors' space law and the Convention and its related protocols to handle. Drones, monitoring air balloons, and high-altitude platforms raise major issues regarding implementation and jurisdiction in the context of air law. States and private actors have adopted inconsistent practices in space law as a result of the lack of clear enforcement mechanisms for treaty obligations and the ambiguity surrounding the boundary between airspace and outer space. Importantly, states' sovereign rights are being impacted by these implementation gaps. Territorial integrity is threatened by foreign drone and high-altitude surveillance platform airspace incursions, and national security interests may be violated by uncontrolled commercial satellite constellations launched without the host nation's consent. Additionally, non-spacefaring states are disadvantaged by the use of space as res communis, which exacerbates global inequality. The main implementation issues with air and space law are critically examined in this essay, along with the implications for state sovereignty. It makes the case for an immediate overhaul of current legal frameworks to guarantee fair, safe, and enforceable management of the increasingly crowded skies and orbits
Keywords: space law, aviation laws, space treaty, Chicago convention, implementation
