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Articles 1 - 10 of 10
Full-Text Articles in Air and Space Law
Precise Operations, Imprecise Laws: How Nebulous Laws Wreak Havoc In Outer Space, Matthew H. Ormsbee, Harine Raaj
Precise Operations, Imprecise Laws: How Nebulous Laws Wreak Havoc In Outer Space, Matthew H. Ormsbee, Harine Raaj
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
As space operations advance with unprecedented precision, the laws governing these activities remain outdated, vague, and incapable of addressing contemporary challenges. The Outer Space Treaty (OST) and the Liability Convention, drafted in the Cold War era, fail to adequately define fundamental terms such as damage, fault, and compensation. This lack of legal precision creates significant liability gaps, particularly as space debris, mega-constellations, and private-sector actors reshape the space landscape. This article explores how these ambiguities hinder legal predictability and fair compensation for victims of space-related harm. By analyzing real-world space incidents, including the Cosmos 954 reentry, the Iridium-Cosmos collision, and …
Surprises In The Skies: Resolving The Circuit Split On How Courts Should Determine Whether An "Accident" Is "Unexpected Or Unusual" Under The Montreal Convention, Ashley Tang
Washington Law Review
Article 17 of both the Montreal Convention and its predecessor, the Warsaw Convention, imposes liability onto air carriers for certain injuries and damages from “accidents” incurred by passengers during international air carriage. However, neither Convention defines the term “accident.” While the United States Supreme Court opined that, for the purposes of Article 17, an air carrier’s liability “arises only if a passenger’s injury is caused by an unexpected or unusual event or happening that is external to the passenger,” it did not explain what standards lower courts should employ to discern whether an event is “unexpected or unusual.” In 2004, …
Deadly Drones? Why Faa Regulations Miss The Mark On Drone Safety, Steve Calandrillo, Jason Oh, Ari Webb
Deadly Drones? Why Faa Regulations Miss The Mark On Drone Safety, Steve Calandrillo, Jason Oh, Ari Webb
Articles
A rapidly growing commercial drone industry has prompted the introduction of numerous regulations governing American airspace. Congress has tasked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with “developing plans for the use of the navigable airspace to ensure the safety of aircraft and the efficient use” of American skies. While well-intended, the FAA has departed from Congressional will by imposing an excessive regulatory regime that threatens to stifle drone technology and innovation. In fact, many FAA regulations fail to address the very problem they seek to fix, namely the safety of our airspace. The unfortunate result is that myriad scientific and pragmatic …
Past, Present, And Future Of Intellectual Property In Space: Old Answers To New Questions, Rosario Avveduto
Past, Present, And Future Of Intellectual Property In Space: Old Answers To New Questions, Rosario Avveduto
Washington International Law Journal
This comment critically analyzes international space law in the context of intellectual property. The issues explored, current and future, are at the crossroads of the international space legal framework and U.S. intellectual property law. The first stage of the analysis includes a brief history of space law, introducing the U.N. treaties on space activities and taking a hard look at the founding principles they enshrine. An analytical overview of the International Space Station Agreement follows, introducing the present application of space law to issues of intellectual property. This overview further considers the fundamental principles of U.S. intellectual property, especially patent …
Outer Space: How Shall The World's Governments Establish Order Among Competing Interests?, Paul B. Larsen
Outer Space: How Shall The World's Governments Establish Order Among Competing Interests?, Paul B. Larsen
Washington International Law Journal
We are in a period of transition in outer space; it is becoming increasingly congested. As one example, small satellites are beginning to interfer with astronomical observations. The objective of this article is to examine and evaluate how the various outer space interests interact, coordinate or conflict with each other. This article examines legal order options and the consequences of choosing among those options.
Flight And Federalism: Federal Preemption Of State And Local Drone Laws, Nicholas Cody
Flight And Federalism: Federal Preemption Of State And Local Drone Laws, Nicholas Cody
Washington Law Review
Small, unmanned aircraft referred to as “drones” are becoming increasingly common in the skies above the United States. Their increasing ubiquity has been driven by the wide variety of industries and tasks to which they can be applied, but it has also drawn the attention of government. Where Amazon.com sees the potential for packages delivered in thirty minutes or less, governments see crowded skies and clumsy pilots, to name only two potential risks associated with the widespread integration of drones into the national airspace. To that end, just as Amazon.com has ambitiously made use of the technology, state and local …
Determination Of Time Of Taking Of Avigation Easement, Anon
Determination Of Time Of Taking Of Avigation Easement, Anon
Washington Law Review
Plaintiffs, owners of property lying under the flight path of planes using the airport owned and operated by defendant, brought inverse condemnation actions alleging defendant had acquired an avigation easement. Having concluded that the date of the taking was, as a matter of law, when the first regularly scheduled use of the runways in question began, the trial court dismissed the complaints because plaintiffs acquired their properties after that date. On appeal, a unanimous court reversed and remanded. Held: The taking of an avigation easement occurs, not when the first regularly scheduled commercial use of an airport commences, but when …
The Right Of Flight Over Private Property, William M. Allen
The Right Of Flight Over Private Property, William M. Allen
Washington Law Review
We all recognize that flight over private property must in some way be legalized. If the courts were to hold that any entrance into the air space constituted a violation of the legal rights of the owner of the soil, it would indeed be a great blow to the aeronautical industry In order to legalize flight it would be necessary to secure the permission of all landowners over whose property a flight was made. It is conceivable that this could be accomplished along regular airways. However, it is often necessary to deviate from the regular course by reason of weather …
The Beginnings Of A Law For The Air, Raymond W. Clifford
The Beginnings Of A Law For The Air, Raymond W. Clifford
Washington Law Review
This article aspires to give such boundaries as the subject will permit to a branch of the law so recent in its origin that its terminology is still in dispute. For the present we shall designate as "air law" that developing group of legal principles which apply to the occupancy, use and navigation of the air. But the difficulties which this definition encounters will be apparent as we proceed, and our excuse for its present employment is that it describes the matter in familiar terms. The discovery of new arts and instrumentalities has always exerted powerful influence upon the trend …
Law Of The Air, By Carl Zollman (1927), Eugene C. Luccock
Law Of The Air, By Carl Zollman (1927), Eugene C. Luccock
Washington Law Review
No abstract provided.