Air and Space Law Commons^™

Delta Airlines – A Carbon Neutrality Pact To 2050 And Beyond A Public Policy White Paper, Drew P. Lemon

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

As part of a new global climate initiative, the United States very one Atlanta based Delta Airlines has recently announced to the world they will be embarking on an initiative to provide a never-before-seen technique of air travel; Completely carbon-neutral air transport and net-zero carbon emissions across all operational sectors of their fleet by 2050. Delta Airlines has now become the first official United States-based airline to promise net-zero carbon flying to the entire public within the next few decades, and the airline is set on being the catalyst in generating positive change for the United States aviation industry and …

Touring Outer Space: The Past, Present, And Future Of Space Tourism, Alex S. Li

Cleveland State Law Review

For the space tourism industry, 2021 represented a giant leap forward: three different privately-developed commercial spacecrafts made their tourism debut. With space tourism launching to new heights, several legal issues surrounding this sector can no longer be ignored. The emerging industry is also raising new policy considerations. This Article fills this void by examining the pressing legal and policy issues that surround space tourism’s coming-of-age.

The Article begins by looking at space tourism’s past. It chronicles the companies, the missions, and the passengers that have formed the industry’s foundation so far. The Article then shifts to space tourism’s present. It …

Indo-Pacific Conflicts Will Be Reimagined In Outer Space Exploration, Michael Incorvaia

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental & Innovation Law

This article will focus on the effects of international treaties and how they can be utilized to govern the future of outer space exploration. The discussion will include evaluating how modern changes in technology have created a need for updated outer space-specific treaties to ensure that outer space does not become a contentious zone between countries. This article will begin by exploring the developments in outer space that have created a new space race. Then, it will discuss the Indo-Pacific conflict and why the current multilateral treaty strategy that is used in the region will not be effective in outer …

Markets, Regulation, And Inevitability: The Case For Property Rights In Outer Space, Eliot T. Tracz

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

In 1967, a number of countries—including the United States— entered into the Outer Space Treaty. This treaty established the fundamental rules by which countries are to conduct themselves in outer space. At the time, there was more concern about the possibility of the Cold War, and thus nuclear weaponry, extending into space and very little consideration of commercial activity, which was largely the province of Science Fiction. Today, commercialization of space includes satellites, private companies contracting for government work, space tourism, and the early stages of testing materials for resource extraction. Interestingly, no international system for the recognition of property …

Drones Across The World: Laws And Policies, Sarah Nilsson

OER Main

Navigating the world’s drone and advanced air mobility laws is a daunting but critical task if you are in the aviation industry. Hence the need to formalize the relevant material and create this eTextbook (webbook). While still copyrighted content, it is freely distributed worldwide under a Creative Commons, non-commercial, and non-derivative license. This webbook is structured the way the United Nations views the globe, in 6 main areas, Northern America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Oceania, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is easily searchable by country if used as a reference guide. This webbook has an interactive design with hyperlinks, …

Who Is Manning The Ship? The Environmental And Legal Questions Facing The Emerging Commercial Space Tourism Market, Alec Fante

Villanova Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Creating An Urban Airspace Design: The Future Regulatory Landscape, Jason T. Lorenzon

National Training Aircraft Symposium (NTAS)

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) are transformative technologies that will revolutionize the manner that cargo and passengers are transported in the local environment. This disruptive technology will transform transportation domain. For instance, imagine a transportation infrastructure without physical roads, where persons, property and cargo are being moved by Autonomously operated Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAS). This presentation/paper will examine the current state of the regulatory and legal environment and the efforts that are being made to facilitate a future that a few short years ago was only imagined in works of science fiction.

This presentation will focus …

Ground Risk Model For Uavs, Andrew V. Shelley

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

This paper develops an alternative to the ground risk model provided by JARUS SORA. Key inconsistencies in the SORA ground risk model are identified, specifically ground risk continuing to increase when there is no further increase in fatality probability.

Population density is a critical component of UAS ground risk. Definitions of population density adopted by various regulatory jurisdictions are reviewed. A categorisation of population density is developed based on official statistics categories for New Zealand. This categorisation is more granular than that provided by SORA, enabling a more nuanced assessment of risk.

A ground risk model is then developed using …

Friendly Skies, Unfriendly Terms: Class Action Waivers And Force Majeure Clauses In Airline Contracts Of Carriage, Grant Glazebrook

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The airline contract of carriage. These unassuming bits of language govern the relationship between passengers and their airlines. Over the past three years, a new term has sprouted in these agreements: the class action waiver. Before March 2020, only two of the ten largest United States-based airlines’ contracts of carriage had class action waivers. But as of April 2023, eight now have class action waivers. Why have airlines quickly adopted these copycat terms? What are the implications of this new contractual trend for flyers, airlines, and regulators? This note aims to contribute to the scholarship around these questions in three …

Pre-Check Security Processes In Selected Brazil Airports- Changes And Gains, Camila Miliani, Fabio Sanches, Jonatta Haniere, Rodrigo Cortes, Tais Gargano, Vanessa Reis

Student Works

The recommendation of this Research Project is to implement the precheck program at 10 Airports in Brazil with more than 5 million passengers a year. The passengers’ satisfaction, security improvement and OPEX savings would be a reality.

The expectation of OPEX savings at these 10 Airports are R$ 3.360.000,00 per year, (US$ 634.000,00) due to the possibility of using the current infrastructure and yet, reduce one Protection Agent per inspection module, per airport.

The research topic was to understand the feasibility of implementing the precheck security process in Brazil Airports. Using the U.S. benchmark, and the current Brazilian legislation, GYN …

Certification Basis For A Fully Autonomous Uncrewed Passenger Carrying Urban Air Mobility Aircraft, Steve Price

Student Works

The Urban Air Mobility campaign has set a goal to efficiently transport passengers and cargo in urban areas of operation with autonomous aircraft. This concept of operations will require aircraft to utilize technology that currently does not have clear regulatory requirements. This report contains a comprehensive analysis and creation of a certification basis for a fully autonomous uncrewed passenger carrying rotorcraft for use in Urban Air Mobility certified under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 27. Part 27 was first analyzed to determine the applicability of current regulations. The fully electric propulsion system and fully autonomous flight control system …

Vulnerability As A Launching State: Why The United States Should Adopt Explicit Indemnification Procedures In Response To The Growth Of The Commercial Space Industry, Mollie Carney

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note argues that the current United States launch license requirements should be amended to include explicit indemnification procedures, should the United States be held liable for damages as a Launching State under the Liability Convention. Part I of this Note examines the evolution of the space industry from a field marked by Cold War tensions to one that is dominated by private industry, and the risks that are associated with the rapid growth of the commercial space industry. Part II will explain the current legal regime by (1) setting a framework of liability generally, (2) examining the Liability …

Law School News: Rewards Of The Road Less Traveled 10-13-2022, Michelle Choate

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Public Acceptance Of Medical Screening Recommendations, Safety Risks, And Implied Liabilities Requirements For Space Flight Participation, Cory J. Trunkhill

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The space tourism industry is preparing to send space flight participants on orbital and suborbital flights. Space flight participants are not professional astronauts and are not subject to the rules and guidelines covering space flight crewmembers. This research addresses public acceptance of current Federal Aviation Administration guidance and regulations as designated for civil participation in human space flight.

The research utilized an ordinal linear regression analysis of survey data to explore the public acceptance of the current medical screening recommended guidance and the regulations for safety risk and implied liability for space flight participation. Independent variables constituted participant demographic representations …

A Regulatory Scheme For The Dawn Of Space Tourism, Molly M. Mccue

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Today, companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have successfully launched paying customers into space, forging the future of the space tourism industry. While a growing space tourism industry promotes scientific advancement and opens an activity once reserved for trained astronauts to the public, the industry generates new issues and reveals the vulnerabilities of international space law. This Note explores the history of commercial spaceflight and the international agreements that comprise the current legal regime. It argues that space tourism presents a need for a new international agreement to address three vulnerabilities in the current international regime: environmental protections, protections …

Anti-Satellite Tests: A Risk To The Security And Sustainability Of Outer Space, Mckayla Swan

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

In November of 2021, The Russian Federation conducted an anti-satellite test (ASAT), destroying one of their defunct satellites in low earth orbit (LEO). This test, although not the first of its kind, created thousands of pieces of new space debris, threatening LEO satellites and the International Space Station (ISS). Russia’s test has resurfaced discussions on the militarization of space and its long-term sustainability. Absent legally binding multilateral agreements aimed at long-term peace and sustainability in space, the area will continue to develop in a hazardous direction. Therefore, The United States should initiate a multilateral treaty to develop a partial ban …

Geostationary Orbit Slot Reconceptualization In Accommodating The South, Yaries Mahardika Putro, Ridha Aditya Nugraha, Taufik Rachmat Nugraha

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Geostationary Orbit (GSO) located above the equator is deemed as limited resources with strategic position for satellites in outer space. As today, the majority who possess GSO slots are non-equatorial states, in this context developed countries. The distribution of orbital slots in the GSO has been discussed among scholars from the developing states for decades. In the past, the developing states ever formed the “Bogota Declaration” aimed to ensure the developing states possess special rights over the GSO slot. The declaration arose from the distribution of the GSO slot by unequal treatment and dissatisfaction to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) …

Project Khepri: Mining Asteroid Bennu For Water, Erika Frost, Gowtham Boyala, Adam Gremm, Ahmet Gungor, Amirhossein Taghipour, Massimo Biella, Jiawei "Jackson" Qiu, Athip Thirupathi Raj, Arjun Chhabra, Adam Gee, Saanjali Maharaj, Erin Richardson, Julia Empey, Haidar Ali Abdul-Nabi, Lindsay Richards, Ariyaan Talukder, Aaron Groh, Brie Miklaucic, Jd Carlson, Kristina Kim, Maverick Cue

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Deep space asteroid mining presents the opportunity for the collection of critical resources required to establish a cis-lunar infrastructure. In specific, the Project Khepri team has focused on the collection of water from asteroid Bennu. This water has the potential to provide a source of clean-energy propellant as well as an essential consumable for humans or agriculture on crewed trips to the Moon or Mars. This would avoid the high costs of launching from Earth - making it a highly desirable element for the future of cis-lunar infrastructure. The OSIRIS-REx mission provided a complete survey of asteroid Bennu and is …

Space And Existential Risk: The Need For Global Coordination And Caution In Space Development, Chase Hamilton

Duke Law & Technology Review

This Article examines urgent risks resulting from outer space activities under the current space law regime. Emerging literature alarmingly predicts that the risk of a catastrophe that ends the human species this century is approximately 10–25%. Continued space development may increase, rather than decrease, overall existential risk due in part to crucial and identifiable market failures. Addressing these shortcomings should take priority over the competing commercial, scientific, and geopolitical interests that currently dominate in space policy. Sensible changes, including shifting space into a closed-access commons as envisioned by the 1979 Moon Treaty, may help in achieving existential security.

Independence And Liability In Civil Aviation Accident Investigations Through Annex 13 And The Montreal Convention, Joshua C. Moscow

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

International law governs the investigation of civil aviation accidents through the Chicago Convention and the International Civil Aviation Organization. Their standards, outlined primarily in Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention, require accident investigations to be conducted in an independent and impartial manner. Notwithstanding this requirement, a state with a nationalized airline may lead an Annex 13 investigation into an accident involving (essentially) itself. The conflict that arises when this occurs challenges Annex 13 independence-a challenge that may be difficult to avoid given the prevalence of nationalized airlines. While Annex 13 independence is threatened when a state assumes the role of …