Electronic Proceedings - United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

The link between ESA and ECSL is evident if you look at the membership rules.Membership of the Centre is open to natural and legal persons from ESA Member States,Associate States, and other European States having concluded a co-operation Agreement withESA and who are interested in the development of space la w and who accept the Charter. Forinstance, members may be: European institutes and other academic bodies, individualacademics, and members of European national administrations and space organizations; ESAitself and its staff, other European international institutions, or persons there from; personsfrom European private-sector organizations and European law firms; and private individualsfrom ESA Member States, European co-operating States and Associate Members.ECSL does not have legal personality; it is not an ESA establishment or sub-agency.Where its operation does call for a legal base, it relies on ESA’s legal personality. As far asthe structure is concerned, Article 5 says that the organs of the Centre are the two-yearlyGeneral Assembly, whose main purpose is to establish guidelines, the Board and theSecretariat.The support from ESA, its “neutrality” but “support”, is thus essential and contributesto ECSL’s cohesive force. Therefore, for its financing, the Centre receives a contribution fromESA, but also membership fees and voluntary contributions from certain agencies.Other services to which ECSL has access should also be taken into account, such as theprinting of documents (proceedings of colloquia, ECSL newsletter).6. The ECSL educational programmeI would like now to present more in detail the ECSL educational programme, theservices offered to the academic community, beginning with the participation in the MootCourt and the summer course on Space Law and Policy.Moot Court : European preliminaries and semi-finals.The most important programme realized by ECSL is of course the organization of theEuropean round of the Manfred Lachs Moot Court Competition, which participants alwaysrecall with great enthusiasm. In this regard, a distinction is to be made between the activitiesof the Centre and those of the NPOCs, though they often overlap.One general observation that derives from this ECSL experience is that Europeanparticipation may appear insufficient in terms of numbers, mainly for a problem of language;not all European students have sufficient proficiency in English, whereas their legalknowledge is excellent. Another requirement is finding dedicated, able coaches and time.ECSL organizes the semi-finals in Europe, either at ESA Headquarters or in a European lawfaculty; it covers the costs and also the expenses of the team taking part in the finals. Acolloquium on a specific topic will usually be held at the same time as the semi-finals. In2002 these activities have been organized in Spain, at Jaen University; in 2003 they will takeplace at the Macerata University, in Italy.Summer Course on Space Law and PolicyAnother important event is the Space Law and Policy summer course, organizedevery year jointly by a European law faculty and the Centre. This is an intensive two-weekcourse, attracting students from some 15 universities in about 10 ESA Member States. Thehost country normally changes every year. The activity having begun in 1991, 11 universitieshave so far hosted the course (Messina, Italy; Toulouse, France; Aberdeen, Scotland; Cologne,Germany; Geneva, Switzerland; Brest, France; Rovaniemi, Finland; Granada, Spain; Nice,460