La compravendita transnazionale dei satelliti artificiali in orbita nella New Space Economy

Transnational transfer of ownership of satellites in orbit has become a growing phenomenon of the New Space Economy. However, this practice is still unregulated and neither the lex spatialis internationalis nor the recent UNIDROIT Space Protocol offer adequate solutions to legal issues raised by these transactions. Due to this lack of proper regulation, in case of transnational sale of an in-orbit satellite, the entity that has jurisdiction and de jure control over that space object may be different from the entity that has de facto control over the same object. This situation inevitably raises concerns about responsibility for international wrongful acts and liability for damages caused to third parties.