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Some legal aspects of international liability for damage caused by malfunctioning of satellite navigation systems

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Myszona-Kostrzewa K.

Studia Iuridica

2023

vol. 97

38-53

International liability is one of the most difficult legal issues related to satellite navigation applications. The 1972 Liability Convention provides that a launching State shall be absolutely liable to pay compensation for damage caused by its space objects on the surface of the Earth or to aircraft flight, and liable for damage due to its fault in space. The legal situation of artificial satellites, including navigation satellites, is determined by their assignment to space objects. Unfortunately, the term “space object” is also not specifically defined in international space law. The main purpose of this article is to determine whether damage caused by satellite navigation systems can be covered by the Liability Convention, whether the Convention refers only to direct physical damage resulting from the fall or collision of space objects or whether it also encompasses damage resulting from the malfunctioning of a navigation space object and intangible electromagnetic waves. It seems that the present regulations of the Outer Space Treaty and the Liability Convention do not apply to satellite navigation and do not cover the damage caused by navigation’s intangible signals. Unfortunately, it is rather clear that the international community is unlikely to adopt uniform rules on liability for satellite navigation signals in the near future. However, the United Nations and its Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space remain to be the best platform to work on establishing the principles governing the issue of liability for damage caused by malfunctioning of satellite navigation systems and their signals.

From the sectoral angle to the general rules or how the convention on international liability for damages caused by space objects influenced the development of the international law of state responsibility and liability?

100%

Gubrynowicz A.

Studia Iuridica

2023

vol. 97

7-25

This article discusses the impact the 1972 Liability Convention exerted upon the further discussion on state responsibility and liability rules within the UN International Law Commission. The question it seeks to answer is the issue of how, and to what extent, its provisions influenced the development of international law on the responsibility of states and international organizations and the institution of international liability of states. Most notably, the present article demonstrates how the Liability Convention served as a reference point for the International Law Commission’s works struggling to codify the general rules of states’ liability. It also examines the factors that, from the mid- 1990s onward, have steadily diminished its role in the ongoing debate and how it finally informed the final shape of the 2006 Draft principles on the allocation of loss in the case of transboundary harm arising from hazardous activities. Furthermore, it analyses the 2001 Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA) and the 2011 Articles on Responsibility of International Organizations (ARIO). With this in mind, it is put forward that the differences mandate strict differentiation between international responsibility and international liability at the theoretical level. Nonetheless, the Liability Convention could furnish patterns based on which, notably, the institution of joint and several responsibility of states and international organizations, respectively, have been modelled. Therefore, it is concluded that the lex specialis and the self-contained character of the regime established under this Convention effectively limit its impact on the development of international regimes of responsibility and liability of states and international organizations. However, they do not eliminate them altogether. Ironically, in practical terms, the Convention marked the 2001 ARSIWA and, indirectly, the 2011 ARIO more decisively than the 2006 Draft Principles, even though the Convention – similar to the DP 2006 – addresses states’ liability, not their responsibility.

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2 Studia Iuridica

1 Gubrynowicz A.

1 Myszona-Kostrzewa K.

2 2023

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Some legal aspects of international liability for damage caused by malfunctioning of satellite navigation systems

From the sectoral angle to the general rules or how the convention on international liability for damages caused by space objects influenced the development of the international law of state responsibility and liability?