2020

Space Policy Research

Journal year: 2020 | Journal number: vol.3

scholarly article

english

EN Before 1957, when the Soviet Union launched its first satellite, there were two main directions in the then airspace doctrines. According to the first of them, the state can extend its sovereign power and control over this space. According to the second, the above-air space was considered to be common property (res communis). Until the beginning of the era of space flight, however, there was no clear solution to this issue, both in practice and in international agreements. After the Soviet Sputnik was launched into space, it turned out that the principle of state sovereignty over the airspace above its territory could not be upheld with regard to space exploration. 1) In the search for an appropriate formula for the international legal delimitation of space, the factor of very important political importance was also used - the need to protect the state’s security. Some authors, however, believe that because, so far, it has not happened even once that one state has protested against another against the violation of its sovereignty (due to the passage of a space object through its airspace), one can speak of education norms of general customary international law. This standard provides for the admissibility of such flights, provided that they do not pose a threat to essential, international law, protected interests of the state, and in particular to its safety.

2020

8 - 26

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