Space is governed by laws, too. Today in Popular Mechanics, Glenn Reynolds gives an overview about space laws — what he calls "rules of the road" for space. But he also explains how certain "standards of practice" have not yet been written, most  having to do with space debris. 

When the laws governing space were written forty years ago, who would have every thought there would be so many satellites roaming overhead?

When one spacecraft collides with another, there's only liability if the spacecraft operator is at fault—that is, negligent in some way. But what's negligence in the context of Wednesday's crash? That's not so clear. Operating a spacecraft in a way that poses a foreseeable risk to others is probably negligent, but in this case the Russian Kosmos military satellite was described as "defunct," meaning that it had either broken down, or run out of maneuvering fuel.

There are lots of such satellites in orbit, and although good practice calls for their operators to either de-orbit them, or to boost them into harmless parking orbits, this is not always possible, and it would be hard to argue that failure to do so constitutes negligence. While we may develop standards of practice ("rules of the road" for space) someday, such standards would require space operators to ensure that satellites don't remain in high-traffic orbits at the end of their lives. Failing to do so would give rise to damages. Space law is not yet this forward-looking.

Reynolds teaches space law at the University of Tennessee. 

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