Comparative Study On The Legislation Practice Of Outer Space Law Between China And India

India and China are both developing countries with similar strengths and rates of development in space.For historical and geopolitical reasons,India has always regarded China as a strong enemy and competitor,and been vigilant and concerned about China.In particular,India successfully conducted anti-satellite tests and space military exercises in 2019,posing a great threat to China.And in international politics,India participates in the indo-pacific strategy constructed by the United States to defend China.And outer space is becoming a front-line position for all countries to compete for.In the face of the various deterrent acts carried out by India,China should attach importance to them,raise domestic attention to India’s outer space activities and its legal regime on outer space,and remain vigilant against new developments in India’s space activities to take effective measures to deal with future space disputes with India.On the other hand,the basic national conditions of India and China are similar.By comparing the two countries,we can find out the deficiency of our legal practice in outer space and improve it.According to the provisions of International Law,outer space activities are regulated by the Outer Space Convention and other relevant international treaties.National outer space activities should also comply with the provisions of international law,and states should fulfill their obligations under international law.The first part of this paper introduces the basic situation of the outer space activities of the two countries.Firstly,it analyses the application of the Outer Space Convention as the Outer Space Charter in the two countries.Through the analysis,it is found that the constitutions of the two countries have no provisions on this issue,and the international conventions are applied in fulfilling the international obligations on outer space.Following is a detailed introduction of the domestic space legislation of the two countries.Through comparative analysis,it is found that neither country has yet established a legal system for space activities and the legislative status of space activities in the two countries is relatively low,and there are gaps in legal norms in many fields.As for the legislative subject,China’s legislative subject and authority are not clear,while India regulates space activities through parliamentary legislation.Therefore,the enlightenment for our country lies in that our country should form a unified space law system,make clear the subject and authority of legislation,and fill the space activities in the legislative gaps,especially in the field of commercial space activities.The management system of space activities is also an important component of space activities.Compared with the multi-leader and decentralized management of space activities in China,India has a high position in space decision-making,management of the coordination and continuity of strong characteristics.Therefore,China should improve the centralization of space decision-making,coordinate the relationship between agencies and legislate on the regulatory bodies for space activities.In view of the fact that the current domestic legal practice of space activities mainly focus on the launch of satellites,the processing of remote sensing data and the mitigation of space debris,the following paper makes a comparative analysis from these three aspects.In the last part,the author makes some suggestions to China as a whole.With regard to the legal practice of satellite launching,the first issue involved was the provisions of international law on the allocation and ownership of satellite orbit resources and the position of China and India.In accordance with international law,the orbital resources of satellites can be freely explored and utilized by states,but they cannot be appropriated by states.The national laws of China and India stipulate that the satellite orbit resources belong to the state,but this provision cannot be regarded as the state claiming the ownership of the satellite orbit resources,nor does it mean that this provision is contrary to the provisions of international law.Then it analyzes the domestic laws of the two countries on the licensing,registration,liability and insurance system of satellite launch.It is found that both countries have implemented the licensing system for satellite launch,but the relevant regulations were introduced earlier and the content is too simple to meet the current needs of satellite launch and development,so they should be revised.In accordance with the provisions of the Registration Convention,the launching State shall fulfill its registration obligations.China has enacted domestic laws to provide for the registration of satellite launches.India has not enacted laws or policies to provide for such registration,but the registration system has also been formed in practice.Under the liability convention,a state is responsible for damage caused by a satellite launch and neither state has stipulated for this issue in its domestic law,but by entering into bilateral or multilateral agreements with other countries to deal with this issue.The two countries have not made clear regulations on the insurance of satellite launch,and there are deficiencies in the liability and insurance system of satellite launch.China should speed up the legislative process on the legal norms of satellite launch,to regulate the licensing,liability and insurance system of satellite launch,encourage the development of commercial satellite launch,and promote the development of China’s international satellite launch market.With regard to the legal practice of the processing of remote sensing data,the principles of remote sensing in international law only provide for this issue in principle and do not deal with such issues as the acquisition,distribution and transfer of remote sensing data which is governed by the domestic laws of each country.It compares the two countries in the classification,acquisition of remote sensing data,distribution and export,commercial use and protection.Both countries adhere to the principle of priority of national security interests and are at the initial stage of commercial application of remote sensing data.At the same time,both countries have problems in this field,such as the lack of substantive and procedural provisions of data license and the lack of data protection legislation.The difference is that China’s open standard for remote sensing data is a primary product with a spatial resolution of no better than 0.5 m,while India’s open remote sensing data have a spatial resolution of 1 M.The enlightenment to China is that China should speed up the legislation of remote sensing data,strengthen the regulation of entity and procedure,and actively promote the commercialization of remote sensing data.With regard to the legal practice of space debris mitigation,international law is governed primarily by the IADC guidelines and the COPUOS guidelines,which are not binding on all states.China and India were members of the IADC and COPUOS and should therefore fulfill their obligations.However,the two countries do not have perfect legislation on space debris mitigation,and China issued the “interim measures on space debris mitigation” in 2009,which sets out more principled provisions on this issue,the space debris mitigation and Protection Management Act has been revised since 2015 and is still under revision,while India has not yet enacted any legal document in the area of space debris mitigation,space debris mitigation is primarily carried out by the governing bodies of India’s space activities,but the Indian draft on space activities,drawn up in 2017,contains clear provisions on space debris.Both countries have imperfect regulations in this area,and India has frequent exchanges with international agencies on space debris legal practice.China should incorporate liability and compensation into its space debris laws and regulations,and should actively participate in the activities of international organizations.In the last part of this article,the author analyzes the inspiration of the comparison of the legal practice of space activities between the two countries.From the perspective of China’s own space law system,it is necessary to speed up the formulation of the Basic Law of space activities and improve China’s laws and regulations in the fields of space launch,remote sensing and space debris.In order to promote the development of China’s space activities,China has gradually formed its space activities legal system under the guidance of the space law and with the contents of regulations,policies and regulations of various departments in various fields of space activities.In view of the economic impetus of the development of space commercialization in India and the current international trend of the development of space commercialization,China should pay attention to the development of space commercialization and enact laws to encourage and regulate the development of space commercialization.From the outside,India realizes the “soft balance” to China through the India-US relations.The main situation China is facing is that India’s cooperation with the United States in the space field continues to strengthen,and India’s space power continues to grow and its competition with China in the space field intensifies,meanwhile,India conducted anti-satellite tests and space military exercises in 2019.China should keep a close watch on India’s space activities,be aware of India’s threats to China in various fields,and be prepared to realize China’s space security and national security interests.