Space Law Regime Research Articles

Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Tourism in Outer Space

Purpose: This article primarily explores the benefits and challenges of outer space tourism and also makes the case that a new international convention is desperately needed since the space tourism business cannot be supported by the current legal framework. Methodology: This research will be carefully conducted by providing an overview of the history space tourism. The concept will be understood by a survey of the literature on the types of space tourism, and the theories of space tourism. A thorough analysis will be carried to analyze the benefits and legal challenges of space tourism and also identify the gaps in the international space law framework that pertain to space tourism. The essay used papers from conferences, academic books, and articles. Findings: Man has always been a curious creature, eager to discover and visit new and interesting places. Since the beginning of the space age, the prospect of conducting open space missions has been a secret agenda item for the spacefaring nations. The next logical step for tourism might be space travel. Space tourism seeks to provide easy access to thrilling destinations for leisure and adventure. People are constantly seeking for new places to visit. People aspire to transcend boundaries and travel beyond, even to the heavens. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy (Recommendations): Even though space tourism has many advantages, getting to space presents new commercial, legal, and technical difficulties as well as advances. The booming space tourism business cannot be supported by the current space law regime because "the backbone of international space law” is too inflexible to be a stabile basis for space tourism The advantages of space tourism, the difficulties it presents in the age of commercialization, and the policies and governance that must be in place for space travel to be effective are all covered in this article.

New Perspectives for the Making of Space Law: UNIDROIT’s Cape Town Approach Compared with Traditional UNCOPUOS Law-Making

The United Nations Committee for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN and UNCOPUOS) drafted the five outer space treaties in little more than a decade and created a completely new specialisation in international law. This, of course, happened when states and state agencies were the only participants in the use and exploration of outer space. Since then, new non-governmental actors have entered the space market, aspects of which were privatised and commercialised. Yet, despite the pressing need for international legislation, since 1979 UNCOPUOS has proved incapable of producing another treaty on space law. The author examines why the UNCOPUOS, established to make international law of outer space, stopped making outer space treaties and how the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (Institute International pour l’unification du Droit Privé or UNIDROIT), a non-UN entity established to unify private law, created its 2012 Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters Specific to Space Assets (Space Protocol), what is allegedly the first outer space treaty in (then) thirty-two years. The UNCOPUOS system of public international law treaty-making is compared with the UNIDROIT private international law one, and the question of whether UNIDROIT has created a new method of treaty-making is addressed. The conclusions are that a functioning space law regime exists, hard law is preferable to non-binding soft law, UNCOPUOS cannot produce any further outer space treaties, the Space Protocol can only form part of space law if one accepts a fourth stage of development of space law as part of a redefining of space law sensu lato, UNIDROIT’s Cape Town Approach is more suitable to modern space law treaty-making, and treaty-drafting is a special art of the international lawyer.

우주자원 활용과 우주법 체계

This study analyzes the issues in the international space law system related to the utilization of space resources and examines the views of states to consider the implications of changes in the space law system. One of the key issues at stake is how to interpret the non-appropriation principle provision in Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which states that the outer atmosphere, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation. In this regard, scholars have generally explained that Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty precludes the assertion of sovereign rights and private ownership over outer space and celestial bodies. However, the situation has recently changed with the United States, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Japan enacting domestic legislation to recognize the possession and use of space resources, and the international community has begun to discuss space resource activities. The Artemis Accords seems to have also played a role in this discussion. Meanwhile, a number of scholarly opinions have emerged that the meaning of Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty is unclear and difficult to determine. Various discussions are underway, and the issues are summarized as follows. (1) According to the structure and wording of the Outer Space Treaty, it is difficult to determine whether a sign is included; (2) It is difficult to determine whether a private entity that is subject to state authorization and supervision can engage in appropriation; (3) The different wording of the Chinese version of the Outer Space Treaty is one of the problems to be solved; (4) There is also a debate on whether space and its resources are public goods. (5) Questions remain as to whether private entities were considered in the preparatory documents for Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty. (6) It is difficult to say that the principle of non-appropriation has become customary law. The UN COPOUS established a working group to address the issue of space resources and asked for the views of States, and some States have responded, among which the views on the non-appropriation principle in Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty can be observed. First, there is a view that the space law system neither affirms nor prohibits the appropriation of space resources. Second, there are views that there is a gap in the space law regime and that the Outer Space Treaty could be supplemented by the Artemis Agreement. Third, there is a neutral view that there are gaps in the space law system and that new legal norms are needed. Fourth, some interpret space law as denying the appropriation of space resources whatsoever. Fifth, there are views that point to or are based on the inconsistency of current state practice with the Outer Space Treaty and the normative framework.

Conceptualising sustainability in outer space resource utilisation

ABSTRACT This article examines the meaning of the concept of sustainability with respect to space activities, with specific emphasis on the extraction and utilisation of space resources. In particular, the article explores the legal principles that currently regulate and are proposed to regulate space resource activities and how these relate to sustainability as a way of developing our general understanding of sustainability in space. As an Artemis Accords participant, Australia is engaged in international discussions regarding space resource utilisation. Australia will have to consider how it will regulate space resource activities undertaken by Australians. It concludes that the current international space law regime must evolve to ensure that all space activities, including space resource activities, are undertaken in a sustainable manner.

Space resource activities and the evolution of international space law

We are experiencing a period of renewed interest in human activities in outer space and, in particular, the return of humans to the Moon. Multiple lunar missions, including the NASA led Artemis project and the China and Russia International Lunar Research Station propose a sustained human presence on the Moon which will require in-situ resource extraction and usage. This article explores the likely impact of statements and actions by states on the future evolution of international space law in relation to space resource activities, highlighting the urgent need for greater clarity in the law regarding space resource activities. It will examine the relevant international law, domestic legislation, multilateral agreements, and recent international discussions concerning space resource activities. It concludes that the current international space law regime lacks clear laws regarding space resource activities and emphasises the importance of space law evolving in order to progress with industry and exploration.

Legality of Ownership of Asteroid Mining Results in Space Based on International Law Arrangements

Asteroid mining is a proposed solution for mining elements that are commonly obtained from conventional mining as we know it today. However, until now there are no Indonesian laws and regulations, nor international agreements that directly regulate what rights miners of space resources will have. Without certainty about what property rights exist in extracted resources, the incentives to extract these resources will be greatly reduced. The research method in this journal uses a statutory approach, examining the statutory regulations concerned with the legal issues raised, and a conceptual approach, namely an approach based on legal concepts related to the legal issues at issue. Based on the facts found, it can be concluded that the concept of property rights exists and is recognized in the space law regime, even in the absence of territorial rights over celestial bodies, although its application to resource extraction remains a contentious issue.

A panacea to address the legal, administrative and economic aspects of space debris

There is no doubt that space matters in today’s time. We have become highly reliant on space science and technology; life without it cannot be imagined. No one can deny the significance of space safety. Thus, for the smooth functioning of life, there is a need for safety and security in outer space. So, it would not be wrong to say that we are at the mercy of these new space technologies. Currently, space debris has been facing universal embryonic challenge to the sustainable activities of outer space, and if not coped at the earliest, the world would face titanic catastrophe. From the preceding decades, there have been some crashing episodes that heightened the space debris build-up, and the speed at which myriad space activities have caused the production of debris. Such huge congregation of debris can pose dangers to the working space satellites. It could also fetch numerous challenges at the same time. In addition, the tremendous development in space technology, involvement of private sector in space activities, Anti Satellite tests adventure of space powers, weaponization and commercialization (space tourism) has made outer space more vulnerable. Presently, there is a dearth of stringent space laws with regards to the proliferation of space debris. So, these issues can have an impact on the long-term sustainability of space activities. Progressing and advanced space faring nations have found the worth of a proficient International Regime that can play a vital role for ordering, overseeing, and managing the research and advancement of space. The paper will magnet the attention towards the real legal, technical, financial and managerial facts. Some countries are capable of removing space debris but encounter many obstacles while applying such actions. Besides who will bear the expense for the removal of space debris as its prerequisites giant sum of money. This paper is going to put forward an independent international space regime (ISR). In order to meet the financial issues this paper proposed to establish a Global Debris Removal Fund. The old-fashioned space law regime is the core obstruction for the debris removal procedure. Finally, it is desirable that all legal issues be fixed through the innovative procedures and reformed international space law (ISL) system with inclusive coordination and co-operation. Thus, it would be the perfect ISR for the resolutions of remediation and mitigation of space debris.

China's emerging commercial space industry: Current developments, legislative challenges, and regulatory solutions

With commercial participants now undertaking an ever-expanding role within the development and supply-chains of China's space industry post Document No. 60, the resulting legal challenges relating to this emerging industry status-quo has garnered much academic discussion. Specifically, while China's space industry has grown at a rapid pace within the past few decades, China's legislative framework has remained largely silent over matters relating to space. Instead, China continues to remain as the only major space-faring nation without a national space law and regime. This substantive legislative gap over China's space related activities has negatively impacted the industry's current deregulation process. While it has been the academic community's primary solution to address the industry's current substantive legislative gap through coordinated rulemaking activities, this paper aims to advance the current academic discussion by taking an alternative approach and arguing that the fundamental legislative challenge and solution to China's emerging commercial space industry, is not substantive, but rather procedural by nature. Importantly, by reconceptualizing the industry's substantive gap from one that is determined by the number of missing legal instruments, to one determined by the rate of legislative activity i.e., the pace of law-making activities vis-à-vis commercial expansion, this paper argues that only through the implementation of legal procedural rulemaking mechanisms will China's space law regime be able to sufficiently address the current substantive legislative gap at a pace matching commercial expansion.

An Overview of the Situation of Small Satellites According to the United Nations Space Treaties

The growing number of small satellite systems and launches is considered to play an essential role in conducting space activities. The development of these space activities has opened up new opportunities for novel and creative uses of space systems, especially among new entrants and users from emerging economies. Small satellites have generally been launched into low Earth orbit, with the associated missions expanding access to space while requiring less time and money than traditional satellite missions. This paper is documentary research that analyzes the situation of small satellites according to the United Nations space treaties. This body of law consists of five treaties, three of which are highly relevant to small satellites, namely the Outer Space Treaty, the Liability Convention, and the Registration Convention. Even though small satellites fundamentally differ from traditional satellites, it is evident that the current space law regime applies to small satellites as “space objects” in the same way as it does to traditional satellites. Thus, as the current legal regime does not distinguish between space objects based on their dimensions, small satellite operations are not regulated differently to other space activities.

Good Fences Make Good (Space) Neighbours

Humanity has reached a critical point in its history. Technological advancements herald a great renaissance for humanity’s reach to the stars. States and private companies plan commercial and other activities in space and upon celestial bodies, demonstrating that humankind can become an inter-planetary species. Such planning occurs in accordance with the prevailing space law regime and, notwithstanding the undeniable ambition of the planners, it is evident this space law regime does have gaps and ambiguities that must be addressed before these endeavours can be meaningfully fulfilled. This article examines the legal regime encapsulated by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (‘OST’) (ratified by all major space-faring nations) and explores ways in which specific OST provisions can give rise to temporary proprietary and jurisdictional rights, which can be used to avoid future conflict in space. The authors contend that these provisions provide rights of control to States so as to manage ‘facilities’, to exercise jurisdiction and to observe rights of ‘due regard’ that in turn establish basic legal boundaries. Such boundaries, it is argued, permit confidence and certainty in the conduct of commercial and other activities upon celestial bodies, enabling competing States and companies to delimit areas in which they conduct their operations. Additionally, the article examines the capacity of military forces to operate on these celestial bodies so as to undertake a peacekeeping type role consistently with the provisions of the OST. Such a function is argued to be necessary, given the unique attribution mechanism of the OST that can give public legal significance to the acts of private companies. It is an underlying theme of this article that respecting legal boundaries on the Moon and other celestial bodies while engaging in commercial activity can create good neighbours which in turn can underpin a peaceful, stable and cooperative space environment.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: An Environmental Law Approach to Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space

The article conceptualizes the existing international environmental law principles to better understand their applicability to outer space. The article proposes utilizing existing international environmental legal principles to implement the idea of waste hierarchy concept of ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ to address issues concerning long-term sustainability of outer space. The primary focus is on issues pertaining to transfer of ownership, on-obit servicing, and active debris removal and how they can be used to achieve the sustainable development goals of outer space through the waste hierarchy concept. The article ultimately suggests that existing international environmental law and space law together can ensure an efficient framework to help cope with issues threatening the sustainable use of outer space. The article works towards understanding the importance of bridging the gaps in the existing international space law regime with respect to long-term sustainability of outer space. Space Sustainability, Environmental Law, Transfer of Ownership, On-Orbit Servicing, Active Debris Removal

Ensuring the Safety of Commercial Space Transportation through Standardization: Implications of the Chicago Convention and ICAO Standards

Commercial space transportation (CST) will occur in the foreseeable future. After the success of Virgin Galactic's first suborbital commercial human spaceflight in 2004, many believed that our generation will explore another frontier of technology. Despite technological advancements, however, the international law currently in place is not prepared to regulate and secure the safety of CST including human spaceflights. Previous legal studies mainly focused on finding ways to accommodate CST under existing international laws, air law, or space law regime. Nevertheless, more than fifty years of legal discussion have yet to yield a decisive solution. Against the odds, CST will commence its business sooner or later. While national laws would be sufficient in many CST operations, some operations (e.g., international flight) would require international rules to secure a safe CST operation akin to what the aviation community developed for international air transport. That mechanism is encompassed in the technical standards created by the International Civil Aviation Organization. In this respect, this study aims to analyze a way to generate internationally harmonized technical standards on CST activities, with or without achieving an international law for CST. First, the article analyzes past legal discussion to understand the landscape of future aerospace activities. Then, the study reviews the history of the international aviation legal regime to find the implications of creating internationally harmonized technical standards for CSTs. The study suggests to the international community first, to forge a common ground across countries and second, that qualitative (not quantitative) international technical standards should arise based on this mutual understanding.

Space Debris Mounting Global Menace Legal Issues Pertaining to Space Debris Removal: Ought to Revamp Existing Space Law Regime

Space debris is global mounting ultimatum to the enduring maintainability of the Outer Space activities and it ought to be deal in the very beginning. Otherwise, it will be too late. From the last couple of years, the rate at which the space activities have, resulted in the production of debris at very threshold position in a linear fashion. Ultimately, it has become the rendezvous of space debris general place. From couples of years ago, some incidents of collisions have enhanced the space debris accumulation, now crowded the corridor of earth orbit which constitutes the most serious pollutant of the near-earth space environment. Innovations in space applications have enhanced not only our awareness about universe but also daily lives world widely. Actually, the space treaties law neither explicitly forbids the production of space debris nor levies responsibility on the states to remove space debris. Because the absence of definition of space debris reveals the unending ambiguity between space debris and space object. There is no any legal procedure and mechanism available in existing space law regime to remove the space debris. Furthermore, who has the authority to take decision for the removal of space debris from the outer space? International space law does not permit interruption with space objects without the preceding approval from the launching State. This paper focuses on the legal and organizational challenges suggesting to revamp the fuzzy prevailing international space law regime to encounter incoming legal aspects.

Developments that Could Create a Fragmented Space Law Regime

Developments that Could Create a Fragmented Space Law Regime

A gradual approach towards space traffic management: The contribution of UNISAPCE+50

The year 2017 as the year of the 50th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty witnesses ongoing discussions about the governance of space activities. The UNISPACE+50 process directly addresses relevant topics in this context, in particular through its thematic priority 2 “The legal regime of outer space governance”. In parallel to and interconnected with the UNISPACE+50 process, the Long-term Sustainability (LTS) Working Group of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) continues to discuss different guidelines, thereby representing an ongoing effort for a normative development. Also the Legal Subcommittee of UNCOPUOS has a relevant item on its agenda: the topic of space traffic management. Such a traffic management system is composed of a coherent set of rules assuring a safe conduct of space activities free from harmful interference. The need for more adequate regulation is obvious: The safety, security and sustainability of space activities are today challenged by an accelerated proliferation of space debris and a corresponding increase in the risk of in-orbit collisions. The lack of appropriate regulation is complemented by a weak degree of institutionalization of the space law regime as a comparison with other international legal regimes illustrates. It is submitted in this paper that a further norm development would have to be accompanied by the formation of a coherent and institutionalized international legal regime, in short a space traffic management system. UNISPACE+50 offers the opportunity for a new impetus to this debate: Its substantive work on global space governance issues should be used to further promoting and strengthening the conceptual and substantive understanding of space traffic management.

The American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act of 2017: The Latest Step in Regulating the Space Resources Utilization Industry or Something More?

On June 6, 2017, a draft bill entitled the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act was introduced to the US House of Representatives. Even though the bill has not been enacted into law yet, its relevance should not be underestimated. Indeed, it not only represents the latest step in regulating the nascent space mining industry but also contains several provisions that, to a large extent, challenges the traditional understanding of basic international space law rules. For example, the draft bill refers to the right of the US entities to engage in space undertaking without conditions or limitations, argues that not all the obligations of the Outer Space Treaty are imputable to those entities, and claims that outer space is not a global commons. In the light of the above, the purpose of the present viewpoint was to review the most innovative, yet controversial, elements of the draft bill and to assess their possible impact on future space resources utilization activities as well as on the overall stability of the space law regime.

THE DIRECTION OF SPACE REGULATION IN GLOBAL DYNAMICS

Space regulation initially acts as the orientation for activities in space which primarily concerns with research and development. As space exploration progresses, the regulation took a more practical direction which covers not only civil but also commercial activities. In line with this, development in commercial space activities took place such as telemetrics, remote sensor, space transportation, space industry, space tourism, space insurance, etc. To ensure that the commercialization of space activities is performed in a peaceful and safe manner as well as in ways that benefit all people, regulations in the form of anticipative laws are needed. These measures cover legal issues. Space commercialization is closely related to many aspects of life such as politics, social, economy, and security and defense which have been experiencing rapid development in that the presence of regulation for modern space law regime becomes an absolute necessity.

State practice, domestic legislation and the interpretation of fundamental principles of international space law

Though international space law is frequently characterised as lacunal, the general nature of the provisions of the existing UN space treaties is such as to cover all activities by public and private entities that can be characterised as exploration or use. The lack of detailed rules regulating every conceivable activity in space should thus not be taken as an indication that there are forms of exploration or use of outer space that escape the application of the fundamental principles of international space law.This realisation is fundamental in trying to understand the current deadlock in international space law-making. The UN space law regime is characterised by principles of global cooperation and inclusion that nonetheless only grant enforceable rights of protected use to individual States that are factually capable of implementing the legally equal freedom of all States to engage in spacefaring activities (Arts. I, II and IX OST).In this context, it is understandable that technologically advanced States are turning their space law-making efforts to a national interpretation of the existing principles that furthers their own interests instead of engaging in protracted multilateral negotiation processes that risk upsetting the basic balance of the existing space law regime that favours them in the first place. We are hence witnessing a clear regulatory shift in space law-making, from the international level to the national level. This shift is characterised by an increasing body of practice of a limited number of States in the application of space law principles that were adopted specifically with the intention of guaranteeing access to an inclusive environment for equal use and exploration by all States.The present article assesses the extent to which the interpretation of these universal principles may be affected by a selective application by a small number of States.

Space – The Final Frontier: Analysing Challenges of Dispute Resolution Relating to Outer Space

The development of outer space law at an international level has arguably stagnated after the Moon Agreement in 1979. With the rise in private space activities from the end of the twentieth century, a robust framework for dispute resolution has become an increasingly vital necessity in the space law regime. Scholars have theorized several schemes for settlement of disputes such as consultative alternative dispute resolution, a tribunal for the settlement of space law disputes, a multi-door courthouse and so on, but very few concepts have transformed into operable mechanisms. In space law at the international level, diplomatic consultation, claims commission under the Liability Convention, the International Court of Justice and, in support of arbitration, the rules of the Permanent Court of Arbitration for the Settlement of Disputes relating to Outer Space 2012 remain the only existing viable mechanisms. The article evaluates all these forums for dispute settlement to demonstrate their inadequacies. Thereafter, having identified its long-term limitations, the article seeks to justify a multi-tiered arbitration clause as an effective means of settlement of disputes relating to outer space.

From Star Wars to Space Wars' - The Next Strategic Frontier: Paradigms to Anchor Space Security

Military blueprints by major space-faring powers now encapsulate concepts of 'space support' and 'force enhancement' which point to a central role of space assets in facilitating military operations while notions of 'space control' and 'force application' suggest the weaponization of space, and the putative view that space may in the near future be a theatre of military operations. As defence goals increasingly focus on space as the final frontier evident in development of national missile defence systems, anti-satellite weapons and other space-based systems, international peace and security faces a new challenge. Creators of the current legal regime for space failed to foresee the rapid rate at which technological and engineering breakthroughs would take place. Now the shortcomings in the current regime beg the question of how the law can keep up and address space technology. It is imperative that the international community act now rather than later. In light of the existing lacunae in the international space law regime, this Article seeks to explore avenues/paradigms through which the militarization of space may be regulated and its weaponization addressed.