Proposing Tanzania National Space Agency Act: The Key Legal Frameworks

Abstract

States recently establish or consider establishing Space Agencies. To have effective Space Agency requires a strong Space Legislation. Tanzania as a new space actor intends to establish its own Space Agency soon. Despite the fact that the realm of outer space law develops very fast, it is with unfortunate that till to date, there is no direct legislation with specific to outer space in Tanzania. Hence this paper proposes Tanzania to enact such Space legislation and propose its legal frameworks. The proposed legislation when enacted, will be vibrant in regulating Tanzania outer space activities that are expected to be conducted at national and international level. It is the intention of this paper to deliberate and propose on its main legal framework of the Tanzania National Space Agency Act. These include Establishment of Tanzania National Space Board, Modes of authorization of space activities in Tanzania, How the space objects will be registered, liability in case of accidents and how the indemnification will be provided, prohibition of activities and offences to be established by the proposed legislation, events of incidents and accidents, enforcement by public officers and their powers and any other related issues. In proposing all these, the paper apply its methodology by analyzing the provisions stated in a number Space legislations from different jurisdictions, the work of the eminent and highly qualified authors in space law, and a number of United Nations space conventions and treaties. The recommendation will then be given to the effect that for the betterment of Tanzania to be benefit from what the outer space can offer, Tanzania has to enact this kind of Legislation. That the proposed legislation has to be one step ahead of other legislations around the globe by covering the issue of constant monitoring obligation, and include the liability insurance clause.