Routledge Handbook of Space Law

This Handbook is a prestigious reference work providing a comprehensive, objective and comparative overview of space law.

Space law is changing and expanding fast, especially at national level. More laws and regulations are being adopted and adapted by space-faring nations while more countries are adapting their space laws and regulations related to activities in outer space. More regulatory bodies are being created, while more regulatory diversity (from public law to private law) is being instituted with increasing and innovative activities being undertaken by private entities which employ new technologies and business initiatives. At the international level, space law (both hard law and soft law) is expanding in certain areas, including satellite telecommunications, international trade, space security and sustainability.

The Routledge Handbook of Space Law summarises the existing state of knowledge on a comprehensive range of topics and will try to set the future international research agenda by indicating gaps and inconsistencies in the existing law and highlighting emerging legal issues. Unlike other books on the subject, it addresses major legal aspects (irrespective of their source) applicable to particular activities (applications) and issues, rather than providing commentary on or explanations about a particular space law treaty or national regulation.

Drawing together contributions from leading academic scholars and practising lawyers from around the world, the volume is divided into three key parts:

• Part I: General Principles of International Space Law

• Part II: International Law of Space Applications

• Part III: National Regulation of Space Activities

This Handbook is both practical and theoretical in scope, and will be a vital reference tool to academics, professionals and policy makers with an interest in space law.

Ram S. Jakhu is tenured Associate Professor in the Institute of Air & Space law at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, where he teaches and conducts research in international space law, law of space applications, law of space commercialization, government regulation of space activities, law of telecommunications, Canadian communications law, and public international law. He is also Associate Director at the Centre for Research in Air and Space law, McGill University, and have served as the Director of the McGill Centre for the Study of Regulated Industries from 1999 to 2004 as well as the first Director of the MSS Program (and Senior Faculty Member) at International Space University, Strasbourg, France, from 1995 to 1998.

He has authored two book and more than 60 articles in several reputed journals, edited three books, and authored over 30 studies related to the space law and telecommunications law.

Paul Stephen Dempsey is Tomlinson Professor of Global Governance in Air & Space law and Director of the Institute of Air & Space law at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada. For more than two decades, he held the chair as Professor of Transportation Law, and was Director of the Transportation Law Program at the University of Denver. He was also Director of the National Center for Intermodal Transportation. Earlier, he served as an attorney with the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in Washington, D.C., and was Legal Advisor to the Chairman of the ICC.