Open Access Research Article

SOVEREIGNTY AT THE KARMAN LINE: RECONCILING AIRSPACE SOVEREIGNTY AND SPACE FREEDOM IN THE ERA OF COMMERCIAL SUBORBITAL TRANSIT

Author(s):
AMOLIKA MAHESHWARI ANANT SHARMA
Journal IJLRA
ISSN 2582-6433
Access Open Access
Volume 3
Issue 7
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Abstract

Commercial suborbital flight, hypersonic civil transport concepts and stratospheric pseudo-satellites now operate in a band of altitude that international law has never assigned to either the air regime or the space regime. The Chicago Convention gives each State complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory, while the Outer Space Treaty places outer space beyond national appropriation and open to all. No treaty says where one ends and the other begins, and a vehicle such as SpaceShipTwo or New Shepard passes through both within minutes. This paper uses comparative doctrinal analysis to set the air law instruments, the Chicago, Rome and Montreal Conventions, against the space law instruments, the Outer Space Treaty, the Liability Convention and the Registration Convention. It shows that the spatialist and functionalist approaches to delimitation each fail on hybrid vehicles, that State practice brackets the boundary only loosely, between roughly 20 and 100 kilometres, that passengers and third parties fall between the Montreal and Liability Conventions, and that ICAO and UNCOPUOS work on the same flights without a shared legal framework. The paper argues that neither theory can be rescued by further argument. It proposes instead a sui generis near-space transit regime for the band between 20 and 100 kilometres, under which States keep safety and security oversight but notified, peaceful transit is open to all, supported by a joint ICAO and UNCOPUOS consultative mechanism.

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Authors: AMOLIKA MAHESHWARI & ANANT SHARMARegistration ID: 1013374 | Published Paper ID: IJLRA13374 & IJLRA13375Year: Oct-2026 | Volume: 3 | Issue: 7Approved ISSN: 2582-6433 | Country: Delhi, IndiaPage No.: 1243- 1264

Article Information

SOVEREIGNTY AT THE KARMAN LINE: RECONCILING AIRSPACE SOVEREIGNTY AND SPACE FREEDOM IN THE ERA OF COMMERCIAL SUBORBITAL TRANSIT

Authors: AMOLIKA MAHESHWARI, ANANT SHARMA

  • Journal IJLRA
  • ISSN 2582-6433
  • Volume 3
  • Issue 7
Citation Download Paper Full Details Search on Google Search on Google Scholar

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International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis

  • AbbreviationIJLRA
  • ISSN2582-6433
  • AccessOpen Access
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