The treatment of intangible assets under the Cape Town Convention and Protocols

Abstract

The Cape Town Convention and its associated Protocols are primarily concerned with the protection of interests in tangible movables, namely aircraft objects, railway rolling stock and space assets. However, these instruments also contain important provisions on intangible assets related to such objects; indeed, in relation to space assets such rights, in the form of obligations owed to the debtor by third parties (‘debtor's rights’) and assigned to the creditor as additional security are potentially more valuable as collateral than the space asset itself. Yet national laws are ill-equipped to deal with such assignments in an international setting, since not only do they vary from country to country but there are fundamental disagreements as to the appropriate choice of law rule. This article analyses the complex provisions of the Convention and Space Protocol concerning the protection of dealings in intangible assets. Roy Goode acted as Rapporteur at the diplomatic Conference in Berlin in 2012 to adopt the Space Protocol. His Official Commentary on the Convention and Space Protocol was published by UNIDROIT in May 2013 and the third edition of his Official Commentary on the Convention and Aircraft Protocol in July 2013.