Proceedings of the Workshop - United Nations Office for Outer ...

SESSION SEVENPossible International Regulatory Frameworks,Including Legal Conflict Resolution inExpanding Space CommercializationDiscussion PaperThe Relevance of International Economic Lawand the World Trade Organization (WTO)for Commercial Outer Space ActivitiesPeter Malanczuk*GLODIS-lnstituteFaculty of Law, Erasmus University RotterdamBurgermeester Oudlaan 50NL-3862 PA Rotterdam, The NetherlandsTel.: +31-10-408 2677/1574Fax.: +31-10-408 9006e-mail: malanczuk@law.eur.nl.IntroductionThe commercialization of outer space activitiesincreasingly also engages rules of internationaleconomic law and involves international organizationsentrusted with law-making and dispute settlementfunctions in this area. It is still a matter o f disputeamong scholars what the term "international economiclaw" exactly covers. The main problem in this respectis the close interconnection o f the law governinginternational economic relations with the domestic lawof states. At any rate, the core o f international economiclaw includes the international regulation o f theestablishment by foreign business o f various factors ofproduction (persons and capital) on the territory ofother states (and in areas beyond national jurisdiction),on the one hand, and o f international transactionsconcerning goods, services and capital, on the otherhand.1* Director of the GLODI S-Institute, Institute of Globalization,International Economic Law and Dispute Settlement, and Headof the Department of International Law of the Law Faculty,Erasmus University Rotterdam. Honorary Guest-Professor ofPeking University and Honorary Director of the Centre ofGlobalization and International Law, Peking University.Honorary Professor o f Nankai University, Tianjin, and of theChina University of Political Science and Law, Beijing.Chairman of the ILA Study Group on State Responsibility.Counsel o f Lalive & Partners, Geneva. Member of the Board ofthe European Centre for Space Law (ECSL).© 1999 with the author. This paper has been submitted forprint in the proceedings of the 3rd ECSL Colloquium:International Organisations and Space Law; Their Role andContribution, Perugia, Italy 6-7 May 1999.1 See P. Malanczuk, Akehurst’s Modem Introduction toInternational Law, (7th ed. 1998), p. 222 et seq. with further references