Research On The International Responsibility Of Environment Damage Caused By Space Debris

ABSTRACT:Rocket jets, the rocket arrows body which has completed the task, the satellite body without functional failure, the dereliction coming from space activities, and the products between space objects’collision and so on. The space debris is the garbage in the outer space. Accompanied with the human activities in exploration, development and utilization of outer space, the space debris produces. With the rapid development of space technology and frequent space activities, the number of space debris has increased. The growing of space debris, not only causes serious damage to the outer space environment, also poses a threat to the safety of the spacecraft and astronauts, which also has a harmful effect on personal and property safety on the earth. The international community has paid high attention to the problem of space debris.In the sixties and seventies of the20th century, the high tide of outer space legislation appeared, when the basic framework, namely five big conventions were born. Since then, the pace of outer space legislation has been slow. At present, in the existing international law, the professional treaty on space debris is also short, and many deficiencies are still in the existing system. The rights and obligations concerning the space debris mainly refer to a few conventions and legal documents, which stipulate some relevant basic legal principles only from the perspective of the framework. On the whole, these provisions are too general and vague to operate difficultly. Therefore, to perfect the legislation of outer space, especially the laws related space debris is imminent.The paper mainly studies the international responsibility in environment damage caused by space debris, using several methods, for instance literature research and experience summary. The text is mainly composed of the following sections:The first is an overview of space debris. This part starts from the definition of space debris, discusses the types and sources of space debris, describes the environment damage caused by space debris, and analyzes the present development trend of this kind of damage, then introduces the international responsibility on the environment damage caused by space debris.The second is the laws and regulations related with space debris, and figures out the problems in it. This part mainly analyses the deficiencies by choosing the typical existing space laws and regulations. At present, there is not a special international treaty in the world. Looking at the outer space laws and regulations, the five conventions is the main legal basis to solve the problem of space debris. Therefore, this article analyzes the legislation of the five conventions, and makes conclusions as follow:the existing international responsibility system on environment damage caused by space debris defects in the fuzzy concept, the imperfect concrete system, the unclear responsibility subject, the vacancy claim subject, the missing coordination mechanism and other shortcomings.The next part is building the international responsibility system of environment damage caused by space debris. This part mainly discusses from the following aspects: the first one is the imputation principle about international responsibility of environment damage caused by space debris; the second one is the subject who undertakes the international responsibility of the environment damage caused by space debris need to be clear, to keep pace with the times according to the objective conditions, and private should be brought into the scope of responsibility undertakers; the third one is analyzing the mode of undertaking the damage responsibility, and making international dispute solutions clear on the environment damage caused by space debris; the last one is comparing the relief methods of damage caused by unknown space debris, establish and improve the compensation mechanism.