Original scientific paper

Commercial Suborbital Flights - Air or Space Law?

Iva Savić
Nika Petić

Abstract

The concept of commercial suborbital flights cannot be established while we still lack two fundamental things: a definition of suborbital flight, and legal regulation of this phenomenon. When attempting to determine whether air or space law should govern commercial suborbital flights, due to the non-existent delimitation between airspace and outer space, we face several questions that need to be resolved. These questions are considered through both spatialist and functionalist approaches, which are further used to discern whether commercial suborbital flights fall under the scope of air or space law.
In this context, in this paper we aim to consider the broader picture, analysing existing regulation and the work of regulatory bodies in the EU and US.
In conclusion, we suggest a new sui generis approach to commercial suborbital flights in international law, possibly through the ICAO with the support of UNCOPUOS, and the creation of a separate convention to address commercial suborbital flights as a special category.

Keywords

commercial suborbital flights, international air law, international space law, space tourism, delimitation of space

Hrčak ID:

261040

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/261040

Publication date:

28.7.2021.

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