This chapter goes back to the very fundamentals of international law in the hope that this will enable us to understand better the major premises of both spatialism and functionalism, and thus to see the problem of a boundary between airspace and outer space in a clearer perspective. If it is remembered that the geographical or cosmographical scope of international law is unlimited, it will then become apparent that the question of a limit between outer space and territorial space, even at the threshold of the space age, would be governed already by the lex lata, however vague and uncertain...

This chapter goes back to the very fundamentals of international law in the hope that this will enable us to understand better the major premises of both spatialism and functionalism, and thus to see the problem of a boundary between airspace and outer space in a clearer perspective. If it is remembered that the geographical or cosmographical scope of international law is unlimited, it will then become apparent that the question of a limit between outer space and territorial space, even at the threshold of the space age, would be governed already by the lex lata, however vague and uncertain this may be. This point does not appear, however, to be always fully realized.