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

Registration ConventionRevisiting the 1975 Registration Convention: Time for Revision?Yun ZhaoLecturerSchool of Law, City University of Hong Kong,, ChinaIntroductionOne important step in the work of the Legal Sub-Committee of the Committee on thePeaceful Use of Outer Space (COPUOS) was successfully finalized in 1975: the UN GenerallyAssembly adopted the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space(Registration Convention), which contains detailed rules on the registration of space objectslaunched into outer space. The establishment of the registration requirement can basically servetwo functions as identified by Prof. Diederiks-Verschoor: “(1) a well-ordered, complete andinformative register would minimize the likelihood and even the suspicion of weapons of massdestruction being furtively put into orbit; (2) it is not possible to identify a spacecraft that hascaused damage without an international system of registration.”The Convention, consisting of 12 Articles, supplements Article VIII of the Treaty onPrinciples Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space,Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (Space Treaty). As an important internationaldocument, the Convention is not merely an attempt to resolve principles of public internationallaw, rather it is an international effort to produce an international codification of administrativelegal doctrine.Scholars have commented on the Convention in depth concerning its application in spaceoperations. Almost 30 years of its peaceful existence clearly demonstrates its applicability.According to Article X of the Convention, the question of the review of the Convention shall beincluded in the provisional agenda of the United National General Assembly in order to considerthe necessity of revision. The Assembly decided that there was no such need in 1986, exactly tenyears after the implementation of the Convention.Nevertheless, with more and more space activities taking place on a daily basis, alongwith the trend of commercialization, severe challenges have been set on the continual applicationof the Convention. Particular concerns have been made with the trend of privatization of spaceactivities. It is indeed time to carry out a serious review of the Convention and make revisionsalong with the development of space activities. Furthermore, as identified by several scholars, theConvention entails several drawbacks. We should take the opportunity to study the issues havingbeen identified and make further improvements. Also as stated in Article X of the Convention, atthe request of one third of the States Parties to the Convention and with the concurrence of themajority of the States Parties, a conference of the States Parties shall be convened to review theConvention at any time after the Convention has been in force for five years. Accordingly, a well-