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

IntroductionThe Workshop on Space Law in the 21st Century, coordinated by the International Institute ofSpace Law (IISL), was held between 20 and 23 July 1999 in Vienna, Austria, as part o f the ThirdUnited Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses o f Outer Space (UNISPACEIII). More than 120 participants attended the Workshop, all contributing to an active discussionon the future o f Space Law.The IISL Workshop comprised eight sessions, covering current concerns in the field o f spacelaw. Each session began with the presentation of a discussion paper by an invited speaker,followed by invited papers commenting on the discussion paper, as well as informal discussionand comments. At the end of each session, the Coordinator/Rapporteur o f the session presenteda summary report on significant issues raised in the session and, following a general discussion,the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the session were consolidated in a singledocument.At the conclusion o f the eight substantive sessions, the “Workshop Executive Committee”,consisting of the chairperson of each session, the Workshop Coordinator, and the President o f theInternational Institute o f Space Law, who was the overall chairperson of the Workshop, met todiscuss the reports of the sessions. The session reports were integrated into the Workshop’s FinalReport to the UNISPACE III Conference. The Report o f the Workshop was discussed activelyand in great detail in Committee I o f the UNI SPACE III Conference. Reflecting the importanceattached to the Workshop by the participants of UNISPACE III, government delegations adoptedseveral o f its proposals as part of the UNI SPACE III Report, which sets the international agendafor space law and policy in the coming decades.This publication contains the discussion papers o f each session, selected papers presented atthe Workshop, the summary reports of each session and the final report of the Workshop, as wellas the section of the UNISPACE III Report addressing “International Space Law”.I would like to take this opportunity to express special thanks to Dr. Stephen E. Doyle o f IISLfor his outstanding support in organizing and managing the Workshop as its Coordinator. Theinvaluable assistance of Ms. Masami Onoda of the Office for Outer Space Affairs as AssistantCoordinator is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due to Jochen Elsen, Anna Wigler, AlexHantosi and Ramu Katkuri, who provided assistance to the Workshop and in particular to CharlesDavies for compiling and formatting this publication. Finally, the IISL is grateful to all participantsfor making the Workshop a success, and whose knowledge and vision provided new perspectiveso f Space Law for consideration in the early decades of the Twenty-first Century.September 1999,N. Jasentuliyana,President,International Institute of Space Law