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

Act 1984 of the United States, on the other hand, chooses not to pass on the liability on the privateoperator but instead requires the private operator to obtain insurance for the Federal Government,as detailed below.2. Launching State2.1. OverviewAlthough there appears to be some continuing disagreement in academic circles over thescope and definition of a “launching State” for the purposes of the Liability Convention, the statepractice as demonstrated through domestic legislation has been somewhat consistent. Of course, itis inappropriate to take into consideration the approach found in the Norwegian legislation as itpreceded the Liability Convention.2.2. Sweden and AustraliaThe 1982 Swedish legislation appears to draw on three of the four segments in thedefinition of “launching State” contained in Article I of the Liability Convention. It defines spaceactivities about being activities carried out in outer space and all measures to manoeuvre or in anyother way affect objects launched into space.Specifically, the law provides that:“Space activities may not be carried on from Swedish territory by any party otherthan the Swedish State without a licence. Nor may a Swedish natural or juridicalperson carry on space activities anywhere else without a licence. 119 ”A similar position can be found in the Australian law, with one notable exception. TheSpace Activities Act requires the launch of space objects from Australia, the operation of launchfacilities in Australia and the overseas launch of a space object by an Australian national. 120 Inaddition, the law also regulates the return to Australian territory of a space object, regardless ofwhere the space object was launched, even though the return of a space object to Australia wouldnot make Australia liable as a launching State for that space object. 1212.3. United KingdomThe United Kingdom has a unique approach to the applicability of its domestic launchlegislation. The law applies to the launch or procuring the launch of a space object, operating aspace object or any activity in outer space, whether carried on in the United Kingdom orelsewhere. 122 The law then proceeds to restrict its applicability to nationals of the UnitedKingdom only. 123In this way, only United Kingdom nationals would be subject to the provisions of thelegislation. In other words, a foreign national that conducts space activities in the UnitedKingdom would not be subject to regulation under the legislation. This results in the UnitedKingdom not being adequately protected as a launching State if a foreign national launches a119 Ibid., Section 2.120 Space Activities Act 1998 (Cth), Sections 11, 12 and 15.121 Ibid., Sections 13-14.122 Outer Space Act 1986 (UK), Section 1.123 Ibid., Section 2.