The James Webb Space Telescope (Photo: AFP/Science Photo Library/James Vaughan)
Krisztina Tilinger
24/01/2024 11:47
Traditionally and in a broader sense space law rules are laid down in five basic international treaties (the Outer Space Treaty, the Rescue Agreement, the Liability and the Registration Convention, and the Moon Agreement) that have been concluded under the umbrella of the United Nations during the ‘60s and ‘70s. These conventions stipulate how the states should behave and conduct their activities in the outer space: for example, no country can appropriate the outer space or the celestial bodies, the exploration and use of outer space is free, the liability for damages caused by space objects are borne by the launching state, any benefit accrued from outer space should be devoted to enhancing the well-being of all countries and humankind and the ban on stationing weapons of mass destruction in outer space, as well as prohibiting military activities on celestial bodies.
The space treaties are dating back to the cold war and were the result of a space race that has now been deeply altered. As a consequence of the globalised, advanced and intensified human space activities, there is a necessity of a more developed and sophisticated legal environment. In this New Space Age the challenge of space law legislation is how to apply the already existing space law principles to the new commercialisation-induced space activities that have not been addressed before. These include, among others, how to deal with the issue of space debris, space traffic management, or the exploitation of natural resources of the outer space.
Although the international lawmaking is on hold due to the hardship of reaching consensus within the international community, space law reacted to the above demand with growing number of unconventional legal instruments: non-binding declarations, guidelines, opinions, statements (soft law), bi- and multilateral agreements, as well as with the increasing importance and significance of national legislations. National legislations are mainly dealing with licensing the space activities, export-import control of dual use items that are built into spacecrafts and rockets, registration of space objects, rocket launch permits, or the maintenance of such databases, etc.
Finally, what are the international trends in the most recent space legislation? The European Union is working on an EU Space Law draft aiming to set up common EU rules addressing the safety, resilience and sustainability of space activities and operations. The STAR (Space Transformation and Reliability) Act has just been submitted to the United States’ Congress, with the purpose of extending the legislative moratorium for certain legal rules for commercial spaceflights. The United Kingdom just modified its Space Industry Act: by decreasing the compulsory insurance amount the costs of rocket launches have been lowered and therefore encourages the commercial space activities. Changes to the Australian Space Rules facilitate the faster and cheaper professional review of certain documents necessary for launch permits and the return authorisations of rockets.
As we see the space law trends are twofold: on one hand, the national space legislations are increasing and becoming more detailed in order to assist and encourage the involvement of the private sector in space activities, and on the other hand the international lawmaking is lagging behind, but getting prepared for the changed demand with facilitating international cooperation.
The author is Space Policy Advisor at the Institute of Space Law and Policy at the Ludovika University of Public Service (NKE)