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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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.
EXISTING UNITED NATIONS TREATIES: STRENGTHS AND NEEDS 17difference between the legal régime of outer space,which is based on the principle of freedom ofexploration and use of outer space (including the Moonand other celestial bodies), and the legal régime ofairspace, the parts of which above the territories ofindividual States are subject to their complete andexclusive sovereignty. Although in practice it hasbecome more or less clear where the area of outer spacebegins, attempts to adopt a legally binding delimitationbetween airspace and outer space, or at least to agreeon a recommended interpretation of these notions, havefailed in spite of lengthy, but often rather superficialdiscussions on this issue. Also an explicit recognition ofthe right of passage for a space object of one State forthe purpose of reaching orbit or returning to earththrough the airspace of other States has not beenachieved up-to-date. Nor has such a right beengenerally accepted as firmly established in customaryinternational law. The attempts to bring a new light toconsideration of these issues by studying the legalaspects of aerospace objects, which have beenundertaken in the COPUOS Legal Subcommittee inrecent years, have not led to some clear and convincingconclusions thus far.10Under the scope of the same item “Definition andDelimitation”, the Legal Subcommittee has been alsooccupied for years by discussions on the legal status ofthe Geostationary Satellite Orbit. The long-lastingexchange of views on this issue has mostly concentratedon the dilemma whether the GSO is an inseparable partof outer space or a particular area to be governed by aspecial legal regime. Another issue relating to the GSOhas been the question of the respective competences ofthe COPUOS and the ITU to deal with this subject. Inrecent years, this discussion has been leading to a more10 Under the scope of consideration of this problem, aquestionnaire on possible legal issues with regard to aerospaceobjects was elaborated in a special working group of the LegalSubcommittee which was addressed to Member Stares of theCOPUOS and a number of replies were received. Cf. UN Doc,A/AC.105/635 and Add. 1-5, and UN Doc. A/AC.105/C.2/L.204which presented a “Comprehensive analysis of the replies to thequestionnaire on possible legal issues with regard to aerospaceobjects” prepared by the Secretariat However, the discussion onthe basis of these documents did not proceed further at the lastsession of the Legal Subcommittee. Cf. Report of the LegalSubcommittee on the work of its thirty-eighth session (1-5 March1999), pp. 6 s. and 12s..analytical and rational approach which might enable acompromise solution of this problem.11In accordance with its original mandate, theCOPUOS Legal Subcommittee should also startstudying new legal issues which emerge from thepresent and expected development of space activities,report on them regularly to the Committee, and throughit to the General Assembly, and propose adequatemeasures for their solutions. In these endeavours, theLegal Subcommittee should closely cooperate with theScientific and Technical Subcommittee of the COPUOSand vice versa, the Scientific and TechnicalSubcommittee should not hesitate to address the LegalSubcommittee with requests for expert legal opinions.After all, a close cooperation and interaction of bothsubcommittees was one of the aims of the COPUOSwhen it was establishing them as its subsidiary bodiesin 1962. Up-to-now, such cooperation has been ratherexceptional, but it was successfully effected during theelaboration of the NPS Principles.One of the impending subjects that needs to bestudied by both subcommittees under the scope of theircompetences, is the protection of space environmentagainst the generation of space debris. This issue hasalready been explored in the Scientific and TechnicalSubcommittee for several years and the conclusions ofits deliberations on this point have been at the 1999session of the Subcommittee.12 The work of the11Cf. the reflection of the recent stage of discussion on this issueparticularly in the report of the Chairman of the Working Groupon this subject in Report of the Legal Subcommittee on the workof its thirty-seventh session (23-31 March 1998), UN Doc.A/AC.105/698,6 April 1998, Annex I, pp. 15 s..12 The Scientific and Technical Subcommittee started theconsideration of space debris in 1994 and adopted a multi-yearwork plan covering specific topics of this issue. In 1999 theSubcommittee adopted a technical report which should besubmitted to the COPUOS for its 1999 session, UNISPACE III,the Legal Subcommittee and other international organisations.During the discussion in the Scientific and TechnicalSubcommittee, a number of delegations expressed the view that“there should be follow-up activity by the Legal Subcommittee onthe technical report on space debris” and that COPUOS “mightwish to have the Legal Subcommittee consider presenting itsviews on the applicability of the existing outer space treaties inrelation to space debris”. Other delegations, however, consideredsuch a discussion as premature and it should be postponed “atleast until the technical report had been thoroughly analyzed by
Page 3 and 4: ST/SPACE/2Office for Outer Space Af
Page 5: IntroductionThe Workshop on Space L
Page 11 and 12: CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS OF THEWOR
Page 13: 3between public and private law and
Page 16 and 17: 6provide for the application of int
Page 18 and 19: 8obstacles that impede ratification
Page 21 and 22: SESSION ONEExisting United Nations
Page 23 and 24: EXISTING UNITED NATIONS TREATIES: S
Page 25: EXISTING UNITED NATIONS TREATIES: S
Page 39: EXPANDING GLOBAL LAUNCH SERVICESSES
Page 42 and 43: 36 EXPANDING GLOBAL LAUNCH SERVICES
Page 54 and 55: 48low earth orbit. This commercial
Page 67: EXPANDING GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS SER
Page 70 and 71: 64 EXPANDING GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS
Page 76 and 77:
70 EXPANDING GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
EXPANDING GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS SER
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
A resource management/administratio
Page 103 and 104:
SESSION FOURExpanding Global Remote
Page 105 and 106:
EXPANDING GLOBAL REMOTE SENSING SER
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135:
THE ROLES OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZA
Page 138 and 139:
132 THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL ORGAN
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 161 and 162:
SESSION SIXExpanding Global Navigat
Page 163 and 164:
EXPANDING GLOBAL NAVIGATION SERVICE
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185:
POSSIBLE INTERNATIONAL REGULATORYFR
Page 188 and 189:
182 POSSIBLE INTERNATIONAL REGULATO
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
Page 198 and 199:
Page 200 and 201:
POSSIBLE INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY F
Page 203 and 204:
SESSION EIGHTMaintaining the Space
Page 205 and 206:
MAINTAINING THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT 1
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
Page 213 and 214:
Page 215 and 216:
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Page 223:
Page 226 and 227:
220Session 3: Wednesday. 21 July. 1
Page 229 and 230:
223Annex IITHIRD UNITED NATIONS CON
Page 231 and 232:
225No Name Address E-Mail27. Ersfel
Page 233 and 234:
227No Name Address E-Mail57. Koloso
Page 235 and 236:
229No Name Address E-Mail86. Noack,
Page 237 and 238:
231No Name Address E-Mail117. Steph
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?