Navigating the Orbital Economy: Reforming India's Dispute Resolution Framework for Contractual Commercial Outer Space Activities

Abstract

The New Space Age is characterised by a dynamically evolving global orbital economy shaped by diverse outer space opportunities, technologies and actors. That change acts as a catalyst, facilitating a marked transition of the outer space sector from a state-centric model to a multi-stakeholder, commerce-oriented ecosystem. India, with its significant activities and distinctive aspirations, stands at the forefront of this paradigm shift. The expansion of the Indian outer space sector enables the progressive participation of private entities throughout the space value chain, producing a transformation that outpaces the national legal infrastructure and creating an urgent need for specialised dispute resolution mechanisms governing contractual commercial outer space activities. At present the Indian space sector operates under executive policies rather than comprehensive national legislation, which leaves stakeholders in the commercial outer space sector without adequate statutory or institutional guidance in the event of a dispute. The existing international and domestic space law mechanisms remain structurally ill-equipped to govern private commercial liability, and that complexity is compounded by the limited functional autonomy of IN-SPACe, the absence of space-specific adjudicatory expertise, and enforcement difficulties under existing dispute resolution mechanisms. Through an exploratory doctrinal analysis of India’s existing legal framework and its interface with international space law, this article identifies critical gaps and proffers a coherent statutory architecture for contractual commercial dispute resolution in the outer space sector. Examining the typology of contractual disputes, the adequacy of existing alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and the structural weaknesses of India’s space governance framework, the article proposes the enactment of comprehensive national legislation. It underscores the importance of incorporating mandatory arbitration clauses and of the statutory recognition of the PCA Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes Relating to Outer Space Activities 2011, working towards a sector-specific approach to outer space dispute resolution in India.