Deregulation, globalization, and commercialization are drastically changing the space industry. But commercial space activities entail considerable risks. This thesis is primarily an analysis of the risks that private entities in the space industry need to manage in order to be commercially successful. Due to the trend towards a buyer's market, satellite manufacturers increasingly have been forced to accept risks that do not fall within their traditional core business. Consequently, manufacturing companies become risk managers for a variety of legal space risks. Therefore, the legal framework for the commercial management of legal risks is analyzed and solutions to identified problems are offered. This thesis studies trends in contemporary risk management practices in the private sector, which is dominated by market forces. It is argued that risk management of legal issues should form an integral part of overall space project management, the rationale being that losses in any phase of space activities, while certain to occur, are uncertain in time and scale. This thesis, therefore, scrutinizes legal risk management throughout the life cycle of space projects. Few space applications have become commercially viable. Today, satellite navigation provided by the U.S. GPS is widely used, especially because it is free of direct charges. In Europe, a competing system, Galileo, is being developed. It will provide users with different service levels, ranging from free services to more reliable and accurate navigation services. As this system has both, public and commercial benefits, the industry is expected to participate in a Public Private Partnership for the Galileo satellite constellation. This thesis makes specific proposals to manage the legal risks of the Galileo project. At the same time, the allocation of legal space risks between the various parties is studied. The thesis of the author is that the management process, which is used to control technical space risks, can provide satellite manufacturers with a supportive analogy for dealing with legal space risks. Risks will be studied for all project phases of Galileo, i.e., the feasibility study, the establishment of specifications, development, manufacturing, the launch, operations, replenishment, and the final disposition of satellites.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.19485 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Hörl, Kay-Uwe |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Civil Law (Institute of Air and Space Law) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002021042, Theses scanned by McGill Library. |
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