Before ISRO Can Go Onward And Upward, India Needs A Good Space Law

One hopes that the needs of the future and the spirit of adventure will drive Indian space policy as opposed to – in the words of V from 'V for Vendetta' – the security of the familiar and the tranquillity of repetition.

One of the most challenging and interesting areas of law is the jurisprudence of space activities. Space, as a subject, a domain and a paradigm, fundamentally challenges collective human consensus worth several hundreds of years on subjects as elemental as sovereignty and ownership. What compounds the problem is that addressing space from a policy-making perspective involves not just domestic in-house legislative and executive exercises but also that such exercises must constantly engage, influence and ratify international regulations and processes. And as a space lawyer, one must constantly unlearn and let go of the limiting influences of conventional legal training while also retaining the fundamental enablers of conventional jurisprudence that