Electronic Proceedings - United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

THE ROLE OF UN SPACE CONFERENCESIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPACE LAWA certain, though rather limited, role in the development of the UN space law was alsoplayed by the United Nations Conferences on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of OuterSpace. All these conferences were prepared by COPUOS, which either served as apreparatory committee itself, or established special bodies for this purpose.At the first of these conferences, which was held at Vienna in 1968, just one year afterthe entry into force of the Outer Space Treaty and shortly after the finalization of the RescueAgreement, one full session of the Conference was dedicated to legal issues of spaceexploration. 17 From the point of view of the organizational development, the initiation of theUnited Nations Programme of Space Applications should be also recalled.Unlike the first UN Conference, the second one, which was held in 1982, did not providea special forum for discussing legal aspects of space activities. Nevertheless, some seriouspolitical-legal problems were also raised during its deliberations. They concerned themaintenance of peace and security in outer space and the necessity of preventing an arms raceand hostilities in outer space as an essential condition for the promotion and continuation ofinternational space cooperation for peaceful purposes. 18 On the other hand, the 1982Conference dedicated a major interest to an assessment of multilateral and bilateralcooperation and to recommendations for increasing the role of the United Nations system oforganizations in these endeavours. 19The latest in the series of the UN conferences – the so-called UNISPACE III held in1999 – was certainly the most interesting one from the viewpoint of the possibilities of afurther development of space law. A full participation of non-governmental organizations,industry and academia in the programme of UNISPACE III by means of a Technical Forumprovided a flow of ideas and initiatives which were then pondered by the official part of theConference and influenced its final results. In the legal field, a Workshop on Space Law in theTwenty-first Century evaluated, in eight sessions, the most important sectors of the presentlegal issues relating to space activities. 20 Moreover, a Workshop on Intellectual PropertyRights in Space, coordinated by the European Space Agency, and some other meetings alsodiscussed legal topics and related aspects.In the report of UNISPACE III, a special section of Part H, which deals with Promotionof international cooperation, concerns international space law, including the present status andCustomary Law? in Indian Journal of International Law, 1965, p. 23 et seq.; V. Kopal, The Role ofUnited Nations Declarations of Principles in the Progressive Development of Space Law in Journal ofSpace Law, Vol. 16, No. 1, 1988, p. 5 et seq., particularly pp. 17-20.17 See Space Exploration and Applications, Vienna, 14-27 August 1968, Vol. II, United Nations, NewYork, 1969, UN doc. A/CONF.34/2, p. 1101 et seq.18 See in particular paras. 13 and 14 of the Report of the Second United Nations Conference on theExploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Vienna, 9-21 August 1982, United Nations, UN doc.A/CONF.101/10, p.5.19 Ibidem, p. 78 et seq.20 See Proceedings of the Workshop on Space Law in the Twenty-first Century, organized by theInternational Institute of Space Law with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.UNISPACE III Technical Forum, July 1999, United Nations, New York, 1999, UN doc.A/CONF.184/7.19