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ICoC and the Right of Self Defence
Kazuto Suzuki
After the ASAT test by China in January 2007, the global space community
has moved toward establishing a general rule to prevent similar actions that
create large number of debris. In April 2007, the UNCOPUOS has adopted
Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines, based on the Inter-Agency Space Debris
Coordination Committee (IADC) Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines, which
was published in 2002. Although these guidelines are not legally binding
documents, they set up ethical and social benchmark on what should be done
to secure the safety of the space environment. Furthermore, the delegates of
the EU submitted a Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities (EU CoC).
This document took a step further to set up norms of behaviour for space
faring states to protect the space environment and prevent the intentional, as
well as unintentional, creation of space debris.
The EU CoC has currently been accepted as the draft for the ICoC for
Outer Space Activities. The draft ICoC was discussed in the open-ended
consultations in Kiev and Bangkok in May and November 2013, respectively.
This article discusses the issue of the right of self-defence in the newly
emerged draft from these discussions. It is based on Draft 16 of September
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2013, which is publicly available today.
Right of Self-Defence Clauses
Article 2 (General Principle) of the draft states that
“The Subscribing States decide to abide by the following principles:
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