Regulation of Corporate Activity in the Space Sector

This Article argues that commercialisation of space coupled with technological innovation calls for a regulatory approach beyond (and complementary to) the treaty regime offered by international law. The rapid technological advances in the financial sector and corresponding regulatory innovations make financial technology (fintech) regulation a likely candidate to draw lessons from for the nascent space sector. The Article draws from the fintech sector and proposes that some lessons about initial regulation via regulatory sandboxes and sandbox bridges are useful in the space sector. At the domestic level, the Article proposes regulatory sandboxes to enable innovation while ensuring the necessary safeguards; and at the multi-national level, it proposes cooperation between regulators in various spacefaring nations along the lines of sandbox bridges used in the fintech sector.

Since different states have varying levels of space sector activity, this Article makes broad recommendations with pointers that identify aspects that are more suitable to certain types of jurisdictions than others.