| This Thesis is divided into three parts. First, it discusses the international setting of satellite communications, presenting the diversity of their legal regimes. It then addresses, in two subsequent parts, the two major regulatory markets which are moulding the evolution of the international setting of space-based communications. In a second part, it presents North-America which was the inceptor of the deregulation trend and of the LEO systems and which firmly holds the lead of the regulatory trend. Then, it addresses Western Europe which is attempting to exert a part of the control of the evolution of the LEO lion's share in a context of US regulatory and technical dominance.;The outcome of this Thesis is multifold. The accent is given all along on the changes affecting the regulatory environment of space-based communications within space-law concepts and stresses the dominant relationship between state regulators and their corporate partners, with a constant questioning on the leeway that seems to characterise the evolution of the law of space applications. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
