Study on International Legal System on Reduction and Control of Space Debris

The legal system of reduction of space debris and hazard control mainly include organization mechanism of rights and responsibilities, limiting and licensing, alert and prevention, resources security and responsibility investigation. Based upon the current international conventions and guidance documents, the author considers that although the system of organization mechanism of rights and responsibilities has been preliminarily established, it fails to specify the duties of countries for the reduction and control of space debris and the system of limiting and licensing is still absent, especially regarding the government's estimation and license of space debris before launching spacecrafts. The author also finds that although the alert and prevention system has been preliminarily formed with relatively detailed rules, the system of resources security has not been specified, and is mainly relying on the domestic laws of each country; and the responsibility investigation system only has general principles and lacks specified standards for the affirmation of liabilities. These situations need to be improved in the further legislation of relevant international rules.