About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

68 ZLW 387 (2019)
A Practitioner's Guide to Hong Kong's Outer Space Ordinance

handle is hein.journals/zlw68 and id is 399 raw text is: 










A Practitioner's Guide to Hong Kong's Outer Space Ordinance


by Jack Wright Nelson *




A. Introduction
The importance of the space industry to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Re-
gion (Hong Kong) and the mainland of the People's Republic of China (mainland
China')' can be illustrated by statistics. Satellites generate over US$300,000,0002 in
combined revenue for the city's primary operators, Asia Satellite Telecommunications
Company Limited (AsiaSat) and APT Satellite Company Limited (APT). In main-
land China, the entire space value chain is estimated to exceed US$16,000,000,000.3
And there are deep linkages across the two jurisdictions.4


These figures, plus the critical role that space technologies play in everyday life across
the nation, highlight the importance of Hong Kong's local legislation regarding outer
space: the Outer Space Ordinance (Cap. 523 of the Laws of Hong Kong) (Outer Space
Ordinance).


Yet the Outer Space Ordinance is relatively unanalyzed among Hong Kong's laws,5
despite its broad reach. Accordingly, the lawyer whose clients are incorporated in or


      Associate, King & Wood Mallesons. Admitted to practice before the High Court of Hong Kong,
      China and the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia. The views expressed in this paper are the au
      thor' own, and not those of his firm.
1     Excluding, for the purposes of this paper, the Macau Special Administrative Region and the island
      of Taiwan.
2     See Annual Report 2018, APT, http://www.apstar.com/en/financial report/ (last visited 22 April
      2019) and 2018 Financial Results (8 March 2019), AsiaSat, https://www.asiasat.com/sites/default/
      files/2018%/ 2OFinancialo20for20investors.pdf (last visited 22 April 2019).
3     China Space Industry 2018, Euroconsult, http://euroconsult ec.com/research/China space indus
      try 2018 brochure.pdf (last visited 22 April 2019).
4     For example, an arm of the Chinese space program's main contractor, the China Aerospace Science
      and Technology Corporation, is listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. See China Aerospace
      International Holdings Limited, HKEX Market Data, https://www.hkex.com.hk/Market Data/Se
      curities Prices/Equities/Equities Quote?sym 31&sc lang en (last visited 22 April 2019).
5     There is no annotated version of the Outer Space Ordinance available. The Outer Space Ordinance
      has not been judicially considered in Hong Kong. However, there are selected scholarly works ex
      amining the key features of the Outer Space Ordinance. See, Outer Space Ordinance in Hong Kong


ZLW 68. Jg. 3/2019

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most