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

16 EXISTING UNITED NATIONS TREATIES: STRENGTHS AND NEEDSoperational part of their missions, the safety assessmentand notification of reentry), the NPS Principles have toapply, according to the preamble of this document, onlyto “nuclear power sources devoted to the generation ofelectric power on board space objects for nonpropulsivepurposes, which have characteristicsgenerally comparable to those of systems used andmissions performed at the time of the adoption of thePrinciples” Therefore, the Principles are not applicableto the NPS serving other purposes, including nuclearpropulsion for long-distance flights into interplanetaryspace and to the celestial bodies of our solar system.The expected reopening of these Principles, which waspromised to be effected no later than two years aftertheir adoption, has been delayed several times.The final document of this series, the so calledBenefit Principles, mostly reflects the existing practiceof international space cooperation and does not includenew regulatory principles. While all States, particularlythose with relevant space capabilities, should contributeto promoting such cooperation, particular attentionshould be given to the benefit and the interests ofdeveloping countries with incipient space programmes.These sets of principles also recall and elaboratesome of the provisions of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.However, having been inserted in General Assemblyresolutions, they are not legally binding instruments.Nevertheless, they have also had a certain legalsignificance by establishing a code of conductrecommended by the UN General Assembly andreflecting a legal conviction of the present internationalcommunity relating to these issues.Further possible development ofinternational space law in theUnited NationsIn the evaluation of the achievements of the UnitedNations in the progressive development of internationalspace law all positive elements should be brought to theforeground. They are certainly more numerous than itwas possible to mention in this brief assessment. At thesame time, it is evident that not all impending issuesarising from the actual growth of space activities havebeen resolved thus far, some of them having beenbridged by rather vague compromise provisions or evenleft apart.The attention was already drawn to the principle ofinternational responsibility for national activities inouter space which the States Parties to the 1967 OuterSpace Treaties assumed including their duty of assuringthat all national activities are carried out in conformitywith the provisions set forth in the Treaty. Thisimportant principle, which reflected one of the essentialcompromises opening the door to the final agreement onthe OST, is and should remain valid. However, anumber of questions have arisen in recent years inconnection with the growing volume of space activitiesof private enterprises. They are now engaged in thespace business not only as suppliers of space objects orinstruments to State agencies, but also by launchingtheir own objects and as operators of whole spacesystems. Moreover, the process of privatisation ofsome international space organisations, which thus fa rhave had an intergovernmental character, also raisessome questions relating to this topic. These questionsshould be studied in the light of the present space lawand adequate answers must be provided soon in orderto ensure a sound development of the space commercialbusiness.9For years, many legal experts have been drawingattention to the fa c t that a significant gap exists in the1967 Outer Space Treaty and the other UN spacetreaties due to the lack of a definition of “outer space”,notwithstanding that the UN space documents use theterm “outer space”, “space activities”, “space objects”,etc., and attach to these terms important legalconsequences. One of these is the fundamental9 The item entitled “Commercial aspects of space activities”was suggested and the work plan for its implementation wassubmitted by Argentina during the informal consultations of theCOPUOS Legal Subcommittee on new items for its agenda. Cf.Report of the Legal Subcommittee on the work of its thirtyeighthsession (1-5 March 1999), UN Doc. A/AC.105/721,30March 1999, pp.9 and 15. At the non-governmental level, anexploratory project concerning these issues, which is called“Project 2001 - Legal Framework for the Commercial Use ofOuter Space”, designed by the Institute of Air and Space Lawand Chair o f International Business Law, University ofCologne, Germany, co-sponsored by DLR-German AerospaceCenter, is being developed to be finalized and submitted to aninternational conference on the entire project in 2001.