New consular statute and Russian cosmonautics

Abstract

Rubanov Avgust  - Senior Researcher, Institute of State and Law, Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Juridical Sciences. E-mail: civillaw@igpran.ru
Address: Znamenka St., 10, Moscow, Russian Federation

The article deals with a part of questions on Russian legal system and legal regulation of national cosmonautics. The sources for the analysis are consular charters, several RF codes: Civil, Air, Maritime, federal by-laws, Federal Space Program of Russia until 2015. The publication vastly refers to the detailed comparative analysis of consular charters of the USSR and the RF as well as other RF normative acts. Assessing the level of legal regulation of norms of consular rules, the author shows the flaws in the terminology, ambiguity in applying the concepts functions and actions of consular service, their far-fetched division which resulted in irrelevant duplications in the Charter. As to the Air Code, the article shows that developing space exploration is one of the priorities in the country. However, among other priorities it is ranked below only two vital priorities of 11, i.e. rebuffing military invasion to the Russian territory and rendering assistance in emergency situations such as natural and man-made disasters. The publication stresses that Russia takes a smaller area than the USSR used to, which increases the probability that space objects and cosmonauts will lend on the territory of foreign states. Due to this reason, Russian consuls should be ready to solve the problems caused by the development of the Russian cosmonautics. At the same time, the applicable Consular Rules of 2010 referring repeatedly to railway, sea and car modes of transport is very laconic as to the air one and is silent about space objects and cosmonauts. The conclusion of the author is that the Consular Charter does not treat the concept of Russian cosmonautics properly.