Electronic Proceedings - United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

COPUOS members for the development of international cooperation in the field of spaceexploration for peaceful purposes.In addition to the Member States, a number of international organizations, bothintergovernmental and non-governmental, which are dedicated to the development ofinternational space cooperation, have been granted the status of observers in the Committeeand its subcommittees. In this way, the basis for a meaningful discussion on space issues hasbeen widened. From among the specialized organizations of the UN system, the participationof the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has proven to be very valuable,particularly when discussing the issues relating to the Geostationary Satellite Orbit. TheEuropean Space Agency, too, has been one of those actively participating organizations.Moreover, some non-governmental organizations, such as the Committee on Space Researchof the International Council of Scientific Unions (COSPAR), the International AstronauticalFederation (IAF), acting in the legal field through its International Institute of Space Law(IISL), and the International Law Association (ILA), have been granted observer status withinCOPUOS and participate regularly in its work.Right in the beginning of COPUOS deliberations, an important decision was made whichsince then has characterized the working methods of this UN organ: the conclusions to beadopted by the Committee and both its subcommittees should be subject to agreement withoutneed for voting. 6 It should be observed that COPUOS thus became the first UN body whichstarted applying in its proceedings a principle that became later known as the rule ofconsensus and expanded in the practice of the United Nations and also in other internationalorganizations. The application of this rule has had positive effects on the work of theCommittee and its subcommittees, particularly during the first decades of their activities.From the substantive point of view, COPUOS and its Legal Subcommittee, in which theconsideration of legal aspects of space activities has been effected now for four decades,adopted the method of a progressive elaboration of appropriate space law instruments. Therule of law in outer space should thus be established not by a single, all embracinginternational convention, but step-by-step, by a number of legal instruments dealing with themost urgent problems of space activities. Moreover, the initial discussions in the LegalSubcommittee led to the conclusion that the first legal basis for space activities should beconceived rather in principles than in detailed rules, in order to reach the necessary agreementrelatively soon.The 1963 Declaration and the 1967 Outer Space TreatyIn this way, the founding space legislative document of the United Nations emerged asthe 1963 Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Explorationand Use of Outer Space, which was adopted in the form of a UN General Assemblyresolution. 7 As such, the principles included in the 1963 Declaration had only arecommendatory value, but some States in the General Assembly, including both major spacepowers of that time, promised to honour them as legal rules.The same approach was also maintained when the 1963 Declaration was beingtransformed into a legally binding instrument – The Treaty on Principles Governing theActivities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and OtherCelestial Bodies. This important instrument, generally called The Outer Space Treaty (OST),6 See the statement of the Chairman of COPUOS in Verbatim Records of the Ninth Meeting held on 29March 1962, UN doc. A/AC.105/PV.93/1962, p. 3.7 See resolution 1962 (XVIII) adopted by unanimity on 13 December 1963. Its text in United NationsTreaties and Principles on Outer Space, United Nations, New York, 2002 (UN doc. ST/SPACE/11, p. 3et seq.).12