Given a flurry of activities in the sector of space tourism, one must carefully consider the various legal implications and resulting concerns. Issues such as authorization, supervision, registration, certification of the crafts and crew used, and the liability resulting from these activities are the foremost of such concerns, especially given their tryst with multiple existing and potential regulations on the domestic as well as international levels. The uncertain legal status of space tourists, and the possibility of conflict between well-established international principles like `individual non-appropriation? of property and resources on the one hand and the requisite territorial rights that may arise in relation to turning space tourism into a reality, further add on to the already complex mix. Contractual relationship between the companies offering space tourism packages and related opportunities and their customers contribute to the governance problems that need to be catered to by any regime that proposes to deal with space tourism. Criteria such as rationae loci and rationae materiae deserve special attention when it comes to ascertaining the role that international and domestic laws (including laws of contract, tort, air law, laws related to adventure travel) may end up playing in the overall supervision and regulation of this domain.
In the light of such developments, the Centre for Aviation and Space Laws of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences finds it timely to organise an international conference to map the current developments, domestic and international regulatory responses, and the legal ramifications of the same in the backdrop of the myriad developments taking place in this sector. The goal of this conference is to find out the true nature and extent of the various legal challenges that regulation of space tourism may face, and to explore possible solutions to such challenges, as well as to review the various attempts being made or to be made to develop and nurture such solutions by the public and private stakeholders involved.
The conference time stipulated below is in Indian Standard Time (IST)