Space Treaty Research Articles

Long-term sustainability of outer space activities and prevention of an arms race in outer space

The growing threats in the 21st century to militarize outer space and turn it into a theater of operations determine the development of various documents to prevent an arms race in outer space both within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament and on the basis of different international forums. The UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space discusses on an ongoing basis its agenda the issue of ensuring the long-term sustainability of outer space activities. This article contains a comprehensive analysis of key areas presented through the prism of the main 1967 Outer Space Treaty, designed to ensure "the peaceful use and exploration of outer space".

Ochrona środowiska w zakresie kosmicznych odpadów

Prawo do czystego środowiska w dobie XXI wieku stanowi jedno z praw człowieka. Na państwach ciąży zatem odpowiedzialność za jego ochronę, albowiem to one mają prawne możliwości ustanawiania norm prawnych, których celem jest zagwarantowanie obywatelom bezpieczeństwa ekologicznego, zarówno współczesnemu, jak i przyszłym pokoleniom – o czym stanowi chociażby Konstytucja RP. Od początku stanowienia Ius Spatiale kwestią problematyczną była (i nadal pozostaje) delimitacja przestrzeni kosmicznej i ustalenie granicy pomiędzy przestrzenią powietrzną a kosmiczną. W oparciu chociażby o treść art. IX Traktatu o przestrzeni kosmicznej, studia i badania przestrzeni kosmicznej, łącznie z Księżycem i innymi ciałami niebieskimi, winny być prowadzone w taki sposób, aby uniknąć ich szkodliwego zanieczyszczenia, jak również niekorzystnych zmian w środowisku ziemskim. Problem „kosmicznych śmieci” nie dotyczy tylko ekologii, ale w znacznym stopniu również jest zagrożeniem ekonomicznym dla podmiotów prowadzących działalność w przestrzeni kosmicznej. W pracy oparto się na literaturze zagranicznej, poruszając nie tylko aspekty prawne ww. problematyki, ale również kwestie techniczne, takie jak wskazanie konkretnych czynników oddziałujących negatywnie na środowisko.

Understanding International Space Law and the Liability Mechanism for Commercial Outer Space Activities—Unravelling the Sources

The status and liability of non-governmental entities for commercial use of outer space activities on behalf of space launching states are not very clear under the existing space law regimes. Non-governmental entities are those who carry private space activities such as commercial launching, supplying different equipment or parts to space agencies and manufacturing spacecraft and satellite. The possible litigation relating to the commercial activities are mainly the financial consequence of damage caused and also the technical complications that private entities face in case of supply of defaulted parts to the space agencies. According to Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty 1967 and Articles II and III of Liability Convention 1972, launching country is liable for any activities in outer space. Even in the case of non-governmental activities, the launching state is liable. Therefore, in the event of any commercial activity from any sovereign states, the state is liable for any accidents and consequential damages. This article focusses on specific issues such as liability for commercial outer space activities of nongovernmental entities in the existing international space law regimes. It explores the applicable principle of space law and international law in outer space activities. The work also focusses on the impact on space liability regime as well as on the legal efficiency of the links between private entities and state liability. This exercise is important in the background of the increasing number of private spacecrafts scheduled for launching in the future.

Chapter 3. The status of outer space and celestial bodies.

In order to give some meaning to our subject it is necessary to envisage the notion of status not as a legal conceptual label defining space and the celestial bodies as such, but as all the rules forming the legal regime for space and celestial bodies. Moreover, we have to put into perspective the significance of the subject, essentially because the existing rules apply not to space and celestial bodies but to the human activities that take place there. In fact the very first space treaty is entitled 'Treaty on principles governing the activities of states in the exploration and use ofouter space, including the moon and other celestial bodies'3.Space law is therefore a functional law and not a statutary law, which explains the pragmatic nature of the great principles to be found in it, including the principle of freedom. This freedom is broad, covering all sorts of activities, including exploitation. The latter point is, however, a polemical one. So it would be better to look at it more specifically after drawing up the general picture of free use of outer space and celestial bodies.

POTENTIAL UNIFICATION IN THE FIELD OF CROSS-BORDER CONTRACTUAL RELATIONS IN THE BRICS COUNTRIES

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of regulation of cross-border contractual relations that are being developed within the BRICS countries in compliance with universal international treaties. The author has outlined the prospects and problems with which traders from BRICS countries are facing when concluding contracts. International treaties, which contain, above all, uniform substantive rules, play a great role in concluding cross-border contracts. However, all the BRICS countries are member-states to very few treaties. The author of the article has revealed that such conventions still exist, although not only in the contractual field. The article pays special attention to the peculiarities of application of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958, the Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment of 2001 and, indeed, the Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 1980 (although only three BRICS countries are involved, it can also be applied to India and South Africa).

Международно-правовые вопросы установления морских охраняемых районов

Международно-правовые вопросы установления морских охраняемых районов

Corrigendum to “Promoting Compliance with Human Rights: The Performance of the United Nations' Universal Periodic Review and Treaty Bodies”

Corrigendum to “Promoting Compliance with Human Rights: The Performance of the United Nations' Universal Periodic Review and Treaty Bodies”

Do National Space Laws Look Beyond Liability For Damage? - The Case Of India

This paper seeks to critically analyze and review the draft Space Activities Bill, 2017 (“Space Activities Bill”) that was issued by the Government of India on 21 November 2017 for comments. The critique provided in this paper is especially from international law perspective. As the Space Activities Bill provides, its aim is to encourage enhanced participation of non-governmental/ private sector agencies in space activities in India, in compliance with international treaty obligations. Yet a closer look at the said Bill reveals that it essentially only provides for the following: (a) authorisation and license for commercial space activities and prohibition of unauthorised space activity; (b) liability and indemnification to Central Government for damage arising out of commercial space activities; and (c) registration of space objects. Thus, the Space Activities Bill is immoderately focused on liability for damage due to private space activities.While focusing on authorization and liability, other important aspects that may incur international responsibility have been ignored; for example, the definitions under the Space Activities often do not clarify the legal position well. India being a space player for decades and party to most space treaties, the Space Activities Bill should provide a mechanism and procedure for implementing the international obligations undertaken by India under these treaties, such as, carrying out space activities out for the benefit of all; non-appropriation of outer space; and space-sustainability. However, the said Bill, which aims to act as an umbrella space legislation, does not include several such international obligations. Thus the paper argues that while liability and registration are important aspects of space law, there are other important aspects, which should not be ignored while enacting a national space legislation.

Emerging Legal Issues in Sub-Orbital Flight and Colonization under International Air and Space Law

Space exploration activities constitute an important part of International Air and Space Law. Space Law, which governs matters in outer space beyond the Earth's atmosphere, is a rather new area of law and is to a very large extent connected to Air Law. Not only have we witnessed a tremendous increase in air travel recently, human activities in space has also skyrocketed. Sub-orbital flight and colonization (also known as space tourism) is one of such developments in space activities today and is not without legal implications. This article seeks to x-ray and situates some of these legal issues emerging out of contemporary space exploration activities against the overarching framework of the UN Space Treaties.

Revisiting U.S – China Aggressive Use of Outer Space: A Comprehensive International Law Outlook Towards Military Activities in Outer Space

Outer Space, as the area on which freedom of use is guaranteed by the Treaty, creates a condition in which nations conduct their military activities. These activities however, were only limited to those conducted using nuclear weapons and/or containing nuclear materials. The principle of Peaceful Uses of Outer Space has been proven inadequate to regulate these activities. This has resulted to launches of weapons to Outer Space to destroy satellites, as conducted by the United States and China. These launches, whatever the purposes are, may cause hazardous repercussion to other State’s activity in Outer Space. This article will comprehensively elaborate on related International Law and other measures which regulate military activities in Outer Space, especially on the launch of non-nuclear weaponry under any purposes. From these analyses, we can conclude that however inadequate the Outer Space Treaty article’s stipulation in the matter, there are other stipulations of international law that we can gather that regulates military activity in Outer Space.

Legal cooperation between the USSR and Yugoslavia: history of development

Introduction. The processes of global international integration have been proceeding at a rapid pace over the past decade. The economies of the states are becoming more globalized and merging into a common market. The nations cooperate more and more actively in the cultural field. Educational opportunities nowadays are virtually limitless. All these phenomena became possible thanks to the powerful international legal framework formed during the previous historical stages which continues to improve. One of the most relevant areas of interstate cooperation is cooperation in the legal sphere, which is based on a set of universal conventions and bilateral treaties on legal assistance. Agreements on legal assistance entered into the practice of interstate relations in the Soviet period, when approaches to their structure and content, the mode of their mutual performance were worked out. The article is devoted to the legal cooperation between the USSR and Yugoslavia, the international legal regulation and to the issues of implementation therof. Such retrospection allowed us to understand the processes of succession in international law, their impact on the current state of legal assistance between Russia and the former Yugoslav republics. Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study is the dialectical method of cognition of phenomena in the relationship and mutual conditionality augmented by a set of General and particular scientific methods of cognition. The historical method contributed to the restoration of the chronological sequence of the phenomena and facts. The method of actualization made it possible to identify the historical factors that determined the peculiarities of international cooperation in the legal sphere. The method of diachronization made it possible to identify certain successive stages in the development of international legal cooperation between the USSR and Yugoslavia, to compare them, to identify patterns of development. Results . In the framework of the study, the author found that the relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia were relatively short and unstable. The diplomatic relations between the countries were established only in 1940, after the end of the Second World War, they were almost frozen several times. This led to the fact that the Treaty on legal assistance in civil, family and criminal cases was concluded only in 1962 and was in force until the collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia. This Treaty is of fundamental importance for the legal cooperation of the modern states that came into existence after the collapse of the two Federations. Russia, Serbia and Croatia have been the legal successors of the 1962 Treaty since 1992. During the following decade Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Macedonia also assumed the obligations of the former Yugoslavia for legal cooperation with Russia as the legal successor of the USSR. Discussion and Conclusions . The international legal framework for the provision of international legal assistance in civil, family and criminal cases between the USSR and Yugoslavia is studied. The role and importance of the Treaty on legal assistance concluded by these USSR in 1962 for the modern practice of legal cooperation between Russia and the successor countries of Yugoslavia are analyzed.

Igneous Rock Associations 24. Near-Earth Asteroid Resources: A Review

The extraction of natural resources located beyond Earth to create products can be described as space resource utilization (SRU). SRU is under active investigation in both the public and private sectors. Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are particularly promising early SRU targets due to their relative proximity and enrichments in two key resources: water and platinum group elements (PGEs). Water can be used to create rocket propellant, making it the only resource with significant demand given the current nascent state of the space market. Platinum group elements are valuable enough that their import to the Earth market is potentially economical, making them the other prospective resource in the current embryonic state of SRU. While it is possible to retrieve material from a NEA, doing so on an economical scale will require significant developments in areas such as autonomous robotics and propulsion technology. A parameterization accounting for asteroid size, resource concentration, and accessibility yields just seven and three potentially viable NEA targets in the known population for water and PGEs, respectively. A greater emphasis on spectral observation of asteroids is required to better inform target selection for early prospecting spacecraft. A further complication is the lack of a legal precedent for the sale of extraterrestrial resources. The Outer Space Treaty prohibits the appropriation of celestial bodies but makes no explicit reference to their resources while the U.S.A. and Luxembourg have passed legislation entitling their citizens to own and sell space resources. Whether these laws are a matter of clarification or contradiction is the matter of some debate.
 RÉSUMÉL'extraction de ressources naturelles situées au-delà de la Terre pour créer des produits peut être décrite comme une utilisation des ressources spatiales (URS). L’URS est actuellement examinée à la fois dans les secteurs public et privé. Les astéroïdes proches de la Terre (NEA) sont des cibles URS particulièrement prometteuses en raison de leur proximité relative et de leur enrichissement en deux ressources clés : l’eau et les éléments du groupe du platine (EGP). L'eau peut être utilisée pour créer des agents de propulsion pour vaisseaux spatiaux, ce qui en fait la seule ressource pour laquelle la demande est importante compte tenu de l’émergence du marché spatial actuel. Les EGP sont suffisamment précieux pour que leur importation sur le marché terrestre soit potentiellement économique, ce qui en fait l’autre ressource potentielle étant donné l’état embryonnaire actuel de l’URS. Bien qu'il soit possible de récupérer des matériaux sur un NEA, le faire à une échelle économique nécessitera des développements importants dans des domaines tels que la robotique autonome et la technologie de propulsion. Un paramétrage tenant compte de la taille des astéroïdes, de la concentration des ressources et de l'accessibilité conduit à seulement sept et trois cibles NEA parmi la population connue, potentiellement exploitables pour l'eau et les EGP, respectivement. Il est nécessaire de mettre davantage l'accent sur l'observation spectrale des astéroïdes afin de mieux documenter la sélection des cibles pour les premiers vaisseaux prospecteurs. L'absence de précédent juridique pour la vente de ressources extraterrestres est une complication supplémentaire. Le Traité sur l’espace interdit l’appropriation des corps célestes mais ne fait aucune référence explicite à leurs ressources, tandis que les États-Unis et le Luxembourg ont adopté une législation autorisant leurs citoyens à posséder et à vendre des ressources spatiales. Que ces lois fassent l’objet de clarification ou de contradiction est sujet à débat.

The Outer Space Treaty and the weaponization of space

ABSTRACTThe United States and several other countries appear to be on a path toward the overt weaponization of space. The question is whether international law – specifically, amending the Outer Space Treaty – offers a way off that path and away from what some consider the inevitability of space warfare. This article addresses the challenges to amending the Outer Space Treaty as a way to slow down or abate what seems a fast-moving policy train, and offers suggestions regarding alternatives.

The Relationship Between the Outer Space Treaty and Customary International Law

The progress in space-related science and technology has facilitated an exponential expansion of space activities, many of which were not known at the time of adoption of currently applicable international space treaties. Yet, since the adoption of the 1979 Moon Agreement, the further development of international conventional space law has all but ceased. International geopolitics, rapid technological advancement, and the increasingly commercially competitive nature of space activities have all contributed to a move away from the establishment of treaty-based rules towards ‘soft-law’ guidelines that are expressed to reflect practice. It has been argued that some principles included in the United Nations space law treaties have gained the status of customary international law. A new rule of customary international law emerges only after sufficient state practice and opinio juris and is said by some to be capable of amending and/or invalidating certain provision(s) of a treaty, or contributing towards a revised interpretation of the legal obligations under a treaty. When a treaty provision either crystallizes into, or becomes a customary rule of international law, it may give rise to binding obligations (and corresponding rights) upon a third (non-treaty party) state. This paper will examine this issue in the context of Articles I, II, VI and VII of the Outer Space Treaty, focusing in particular upon their (in)applicability to those states that have never been, or are no longer parties to the Outer Space Treaty, with respect to off-Earth mining activities for space natural resources.

International Universal Unification of the Conflict-of-Law Regulation of Cross-Border Unfair Competition

This article puts forward that there are diverse and sound grounds preventing the universal treaty regulating comprehensively the issues of legal protection from crossborder unfair competition by substantive norms from being worked out in the near future. The development of the universal unification of the conflict-of-law rules on the law applicable to the private relations arising out of unfair competition as a possible alternative is also proposed and substantiated. The authors give some possible reasons for the absence of such a treaty and demonstrate the results that have been achieved so far in this field. The concept of the Draft of the relevant Convention is drawn up. The conclusion is made that the latter needs to be centered on the lex mercatus as a single connecting factor (due to its advantages of predictability, account of the interests of the state where the effected market is situated etc.). Furthermore, the Convention should not provide for party autonomy, should set forth the detailed rules for the legal characterization of the basic terms of the Convention, including the scope of the applicable law as well as the public policy clause and the norms on the overriding mandatory provisions.

United Nations General Assembly Resolutions in the Formation of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967

ABSTRACTThe launch of Sputnik in 1957 followed by Explorer in 1958 showcased the potential of space and stressed the need for a robust body of law legislating space as beneficial to all states. Following the launches, a series of resolutions by the United Nations’ General Assembly developed the core principles of international space law. This article conducts an analysis of resolutions passed from 1957 to 1967 to understand the genesis of space law principles as reflected in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. These principles include sovereign equality, peaceful purposes and international cooperation, non-appropriation of space, common heritage of mankind, environmental protection, and how to address non-governmental entities engaged in space activities.

Common Heritage of Mankind for Outer Space

ABSTRACTThe paper examines the intention of the drafters of the Outer Space Treaty regime to advance from the principle of “common province of mankind” and adopt “Common Heritage of Mankind”. In this context, the drafting history of the Moon Agreement, which helps discern the meanings ascribed to Common Heritage of Mankind by various countries, is considered. Moreover, the usage of the term in other realms, such as the deep seabed regime and Antarctica, is essential to understand the concept. The introduction of Common Heritage of Mankind in the United Nations Law of the Sea led to various industrialized developed countries, including the United States, to oppose the law. Hence, the approach was diluted to ensure it converts into a more liberal condition that does not enforce strict mandates on parties to the Law of the Sea. A similar view of states exists with respect to the Moon Agreement resulting to date in only 17 ratifications by states with no spacefaring states among them. Consequently, most states argue that the Common Heritage of Mankind principle in the Moon Agreement is not applicable due to not being party to the agreement. It is also argued that since there is no state practice suggesting opinion juris regarding Common Heritage of Mankind, it is not part of customary international law. The non-inclusion of the principle as a customary norm makes the relevance of Common Heritage of Mankind in the present world debatable and uncertain.

Reviewing the Moon Agreement or Amending the Outer Space Treaty?

In the context of global energy crises related to the traditional energy sources, as well as in connection with modern challenges and threats caused by the instability of the world energy markets, there is a necessity to expand and use the objects of energy complex that use renewable energy sources like solar energy.Such energy usage can be a reason for different interstate disputes due to the uncertainty in international legal regimes of space energy sources under international space law. Firstly, there is no legal definition of “space resource.” Secondly, the current international space treaties contain only basic principles and norms for regulating this kind of space activity. Finally, there could be many issues related to the responsibility and liability for such a new kind of space activity. This paper will be devoted to the issues mentioned above and to other questions related to this problem.

An International Registry and Registrar for Priority Rights to Extract Resources on Celestial Bodies

In the context of global energy crises related to the traditional energy sources, as well as in connection with modern challenges and threats caused by the instability of the world energy markets, there is a necessity to expand and use the objects of energy complex that use renewable energy sources like solar energy.Such energy usage can be a reason for different interstate disputes due to the uncertainty in international legal regimes of space energy sources under international space law. Firstly, there is no legal definition of “space resource.” Secondly, the current international space treaties contain only basic principles and norms for regulating this kind of space activity. Finally, there could be many issues related to the responsibility and liability for such a new kind of space activity. This paper will be devoted to the issues mentioned above and to other questions related to this problem.

Prescribing the Best Medicine for the Struggling Space Mining Industry

In the context of global energy crises related to the traditional energy sources, as well as in connection with modern challenges and threats caused by the instability of the world energy markets, there is a necessity to expand and use the objects of energy complex that use renewable energy sources like solar energy.Such energy usage can be a reason for different interstate disputes due to the uncertainty in international legal regimes of space energy sources under international space law. Firstly, there is no legal definition of “space resource.” Secondly, the current international space treaties contain only basic principles and norms for regulating this kind of space activity. Finally, there could be many issues related to the responsibility and liability for such a new kind of space activity. This paper will be devoted to the issues mentioned above and to other questions related to this problem.