THE LEGAL REGIME GOVERNING THE PASSAGE OF SPACE OBJECTS OVER THE AIRSPACE OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Abstract

According to the Chicago Convention (Civil Aviation Convention, 1984), every government has complete and unquestioned governance over the airspace of its land. On the other hand according to the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, every state is allowed to use and explore the outer space. Nowadays, space activities are increasingly expanding and several space objects are launched into the outer space every year. Resultantly it is constantly probable for space objects to violate foreign countries' airspace while ascending towards the space or descending from it. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the passage of space objects over the airspace of foreign countries. To this end, firstly the issue of the boundary between the outer space and the airspace of countries is elaborated on and afterwards, it is investigated if there is an international convention in this context in spite of lack of existence of an international treaty regarding the legal criteria governing the passage of space objects over countries' airspace.