The International Regulation Of The Global Navigation Satellite System

There are four world-recognized Global Navigation Satellite Systems,American GPS,Russian GLONASS,Chinese Compass Navigation Satellite System and EU GALILEO.In addition,there are several regional satellite systems.Satellite navigation plays an important role in modern society,not only can it help precise guided missile and locate soldiers in military fields,but also helps countries to seize air supremacy.Global Navigation Satellite System also plays an important role in civil fields,covering various industries from geodesy,geological monitoring,disaster-searching and disaster-rescuing to daily-life-route navigation and locationHowever,there are lots of international legal issues relating to the areas of Global Navigation Satellite System.Currently,the international regulations of outer space law are very general,including the relative international treaties,the documentations of related international organizations and so on,not to mention the scarcity of specific regulations of Global Navigation Satellite System.Global Navigation Satellite System has developed rapidly since the 1980 s,and nowadays,it gets involved with every aspect of national daily life.The future developing trend of satellite navigation will present a globalization,integration and precision path.A series of international legal issues were caused by the huge conflicts between the rapid development of Global Navigation Satellite System and the law lagging.These international legal issues cover from the potential conflicts between satellite navigation and sovereignty,the difficulties in determining damage liability,to the potential inequality in exploring the outer space.The potential international legal issues related to the satellite navigation activities involve the following aspects: I、Since the operation of Global Navigation Satellite System depends on the satellites which take up physical space in outer space,does the space beneath the satellite orbits belong to sovereignty or outer space? This issue will decide whether the provider of Global Navigation Satellite System has legitimate rights to launch the satellites to its orbit.II 、 The ownership of the ground information and the geographic data required during the activities of Global Navigation Satellite System.III 、 Whether the provider of Global Navigation Satellite System should bear the liability of satellite navigation activities.IV、Is the way to distribute resources such as satellite orbits and radio frequencies by international organizations fair or not,and can it meet the humanity mutual benefits regulated by relative treaties or not.Regarding the abovementioned issues,the framework of this Article is as follows:This Article will briefly introduce the background information such as basic operation principle and history of Global Navigation Satellite System.Then,this Article will discuss the international legal issues related to the activities of Global Navigation Satellite System.Following the current issues is the analysis of current international regulation which involve the documentations of international organizations(such as the ICAO、ITU),the international treaties of outer space law,and the legal framework of the provider of Global Navigation Satellite System(USA、Russia、EU,this part will mainly focus on the legal files related to American GPS).The last part of this Article will explore the international regulation framework of Global Navigation Satellite System,and will discuss the legal framework of Chinese Compass Navigation Satellite System.This Article divides into Four Chapters,which are:Chapter One: the basic knowledge of Global Navigation Satellite System.Firstly,this chapter illustrates the basic concept and evolution of Global Navigation Satellite System.Second,this chapter explains the necessity of establishing international regulation of Global Navigation Satellite System,which involves the characteristics and the future-developing trend of Global Navigation Satellite System.The characteristics include the globalization,weakness of signals,military uses and so on.The future-developing trend of Global Navigation Satellite System is the compatibility of those systems.Chapter Two: the current legal issues of Global Navigation Satellite System.Firstly,this chapter discusses the conflicts between the operation of Global Navigation Satellite System and the sovereignty principle,and this section will focus on the division of air space and outer space as well as the information sovereignty of countries.Second,this chapter briefly introduces the privacy of users regarding the analysis of location required during the activities of Global Navigation Satellite System,and this section will focus on the analysis of GPS-related cases.Then,the Global Navigation Satellite System activities also involve the liability issues raised by the absence of navigation signals,decrease of precision and so on.Last,limited natural resources such as satellite orbits and radio frequencies are also involved,resulting to the conflicts between respective Global Navigation Satellite Systems and confrontations between navigation industry and other industries.Chapter Three: the current international regulation framework of Global Navigation Satellite System.The framework includes the documentations of international organizations,such as the ICAO、ITU、UN,and the related domestic legal framework which focuses on the documents and policies related to American GPS.Chapter Four: the exploration of the establishment of international regulation of Global Navigation Satellite System.The framework will include clear definition of certain concepts,the more-specified current regulations,the enhanced nation-to-nation cooperation,the unified standard of Global Navigation Satellite System.At last,this chapter also briefly introduces current legal documents and the exploration of future legal framework of Chinese Compass Navigation Satellite System.