Studies on Legal Regime on International Responsibility for Outer Space Environmental Damage
- Paper number
IAC-11,E7,4,4,x9531
- Author
Prof. Li Shouping, Beijing Institute of technology, China
- Year
2011
- Abstract
The paper attempted to establish a legal regime on international responsibility for outer space environmental damage which shall include the elements of responsibility, legal consequence of the acts of outer space environmental damage and the implementation of this kind of responsibility. The paper empirically and comparatively studied existing international law concerning international responsibility for outer space environmental damage and states practices concerned. The paper include three parts. The first part elaborated the specificity and causes of outer space environmental damage and analysis the legal nature on this kind of international responsibility. The second part studied the elements of the international responsibility for outer space environmental damage in the trend of commercial use of outer space. The third part studied the legal consequences of the acts of outer space environmental damage and the implementation of this kind of responsibility. The paper draw a conclusion that outer space environmental damage is a special damage act, the responsibility for outer space environmental damage actually is liability. Fault is not a elements for this kind of responsibility. Every space activity which produced space debris or chemistry or radioactive pollution will entail international liability. Because of the specificity of outer space environment, there is no specific law sources on who shall be the claimant and how to implement the liability for outer space environmental damage in the existing international law. It is difficult to confirm the subject of liability in existing international law. It is essential for existing international space law to develop a perfect legal regime on outer space environmental damage.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)