ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the effect the aerospace plane will have on the already contentious issue of air traffic rights, given the highly commercial flavour which the air transport industry has been tainted with in modern times, particularly in the face of modern commercial tools such as alliances between mega carriers and code-sharing agreements. The aerospace plane will be constructed with the use of aeronautical and space technologies and would be capable and, indeed, required to fly both in airspace and in outer space. In these circumstances, the most fundamental issue at hand is the applicability of laws appropriate to the space plane's activities. In order to examine the principles of state responsibility, the chapter addresses the most fundamental postulates of jurisprudence at air and space law which establish such responsibility. It discusses the principles of legal liability of states in the operation of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).
