Kr Sridhara Murthi

Trends in Outer Space Activities—Legal and Policy Challenges

Outer Space activities, which were mainly driven by public sector or government actors in the initial decades of their advent, have been increasingly undertaken by private sector in the recent past. The impetus for growth in space activities now is mainly derived from the commercial uses of space, which are diverse in nature. Innovative applications of technologies enable space systems to directly communicate even at individual consumer level—thus vastly multiplying the potential for space applications to the benefit of human society. While future survival of human race itself in the face of several risks of cataclysmic nature to human life on earth depends upon its spreading into Outer Space in the longer term, such a prospect requires giant leaps in technologies, systems and strategies for wider human access and control of Outer Space environment for long-term habitation. The implications of recent disruptive trends in space activities, particularly those brought about by increased private sector roles and increased number of actors in Outer Space, need a review from the perspectives of policy and legal challenges that they pose. There is much attention now to the governance of Outer Space which enjoys a unique international legal regime but was unable to cope with the dynamics of changing environment. This article analyses the policy and legal challenges from three main perspectives of the role of Outer Space as a driver of economy, as an instrument of security and as a means for exploring future destiny of human race by considering multiple dimensions of Outer Space activities involving spacecraft, space transport systems, space operations, investment trends, issues relating to security, space environment and governance.

SPATIAL INFORMATION - RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES PERSPECTIVES

Geographic information systems (GIS), and their associated databases, already have had substantial impact on government and business throughout the world. Increasingly, spatial data constitute the core of the information management systems of both private companies and public agencies. The spatial data and processing capabilities supplied by the technology also constitute a significant component of the emerging National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The use of spatial data promises greater efficiency in commerce, improvements in the environment, health, and safety, increased convenience for consumers, more citizen participation in governance, and improved public and private decision making generally. Legal regimes for protecting and managing compilations of digital spatial data, however, are underdeveloped and unclear. Ownership of digital spatial data, protection of privacy, access rights to spatial data compiled and held by governments, and information liability are still developing in the context of GIS and spatial data. Moreover, disputes and policy debates over the use of spatial databases will become test cases for establishing law and policy in several critical areas of information law. It is spatial data products and services, as opposed to other forms of electronic data, that agencies at a variety of levels are attempting to sell, thus prompting legislative and other efforts by owners to restrict public access to spatial information in digital form. In short, because of the great value of GIS, its potential for altering governments relationships with citizens, and its potential for intrusiveness, concerns over the handling of digital spatial data will be substantial factors in societys reconciliation of competing social, economic, and political interests in electronic data generally.