Shaping a Legal Framework for BeiDou Satellite Navigation System

As the service provision to Asia-Pacific region and the construction of global constellation are pushing forward step by step, the lack of soft power on governance and management over BeiDou Satellite Navigation System (BDS), including institutional, policy and legal arrangements, is clipping the wings of the deployment, development, exploration and application of BDS, and constraining its further popularization both at domestic and global level. Therefore, it is necessary to propose a comprehensive legal framework for BDS so as to lock the sustainable development of BDS and to balance the interests of all stakeholders in the value chain of BDS. Bearing that in mind, this paper offers the whole thinking of shaping that legal system based on the specific analyses on the legal regimes on the supervision mechanism, certification system, mandatory application, ownership, operation, cost of recovery, sovereign rights, liability regime, data and privacy protection as well as other legal issues in the context of BDS.