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

EXPANDING GLOBAL LAUNCH SERVICES 57oligopolies the launch industry, both as a technologyand as a trade in services.All these obstacles, as emphasized by ProfessorPeter van Fenema, “affect the free choice of launchservice providers of different capabilities andnationalities; in other words: international competition”.Therefore, we can say that internationalcompetition as well as international cooperation in thelaunch industry still remains a big obstacle course,which of course holds back a more vigorous expansionof this fundamental sector of space activities.That is certainly why Professor Peter van Fenemais carefully in inviting us to deeply think about thedilemma of national security versus trade interests, andthe way to solve it in favor of “free and fair trade incommercial space launch services”. He rightly pointsout that “the national security-inspired actions of onecountry may have a disproportionate effect on a majorglobal industry and on the legitimate trade interests ofother countries”, and that “this creates responsibilitieswhich go beyond national borders”.We can see here the source of an abnormal andunadmissible ‘de facto’ situation when one country’snational law intends to be in force in and to othercountries without any agreement on this matter. Itseems that in the current global launch affairs it is notdifficult to detect the uncomfortable presence of someof extraterritorial national jurisdiction imposed, whichhas to be faced as a very negative factor in general andparticularly to the development of space activities by allstates.I agree with Professor Peter van Fenema that morecertainty about the free and permanent availability ofboth domestic and foreign launch services must bebased on an international treaty in order to assure anenvironment of stability and predictability, as well as toprevent unilateral and arbitrary national decisions.I also second the proposal of Professor Peter vanFenema to engage the COPUOS Legal Subcommittee“in an analysis of whether the body of space law andpolicy is still adequate in regulating the space activitiesof states and other entities, particularly in the light ofthe explosive growth of private commercial spaceactivities”. I would just suggest one basic condition:This discussion should be focused not only on privateinterests, but also and simultaneously on theinternational public interests, the interests of allcountries, as they are recognized in 1967 Space Treaty.We need to take into due account this requirementbecause, as properly stated in the UNISPACE IIIPlenary session by the Head of the BrazilianDelegation, Ambassador Sergio de Queiroz Duarte,“the increasing involvement of the private sector ininternational cooperation agreements should not resultin an increase of the gap between developed anddeveloping countries, but rather in the strengthening oftrue international cooperation in the use of space as thecommon domain of humankind.”All these ideas raise questions that we would haveto discuss and try to find fair answers: Which kind ofglobal launch services development we all neednowadays and in the future? Does this expansion willcontinue to move under the market forces only, or couldthe community of nations and organizations, includingprivate ones, act in the sense of conducting thisexpansion to a more reasonable and rational directionalso? How to deal with the tendency of oligopolizationof the launch industry?Such a comprehensive discussion may lead us toseriously think about the task of setting specificprinciples on the launch space services, a sort of a codeof conduct. After all, they are the very start of all spaceactivities.Commentary PaperArmel KerrestProfessor of International Law at theUniversity of Western Brittany (France)I was very impressed by the high quality of thepresentation of Pr. van Fenema. I share most of his