IISL President addresses international seminar on space in Bavaria
IISL President Lesley Jane Smith presented at a seminar held at Castle Hohenkammer in Bavaria on 10 September 2026.
The two-days seminar entitled “Exploring the Next Frontier: Transatlantic Leadership in Space” was organised by the Bavarian State Chancellery and the U.S. Consulate General Munich, and saw prominent speakers from international relations, academia, and industry present on topics including space financing and commercial innovation, human spaceflight and planetary missions, and the strategic and security dimensions of space activity.
Speaking on the second day of the seminar, Smith’s presentation, “Current Challenges in Space Law and Regulation: Governance and Ethics for New Frontiers (Beyond Earth)”, offered a timely and wide-ranging survey of the legal tensions shaping today’s space sector – from the enduring relevance of the five UN space treaties amid commercial expansion, AI, and human activity beyond Earth, to the patchwork of national space legislation across the US, France, the UK, and Germany, and the evolving work of UN COPUOS on sustainability, space traffic management, and lunar governance.
She also addressed pressing regulatory questions around signal jamming and spoofing, the role of artificial intelligence in space operations, and the environmental impact of space activities on Earth, including the emerging recognition of climate protection as a matter of customary international law.
Given the seminar’s transatlantic focus and the questions left open from the first day’s sessions, her talk proved especially well-timed, directly picking up threads earlier speakers had deferred. The presentation was followed by a lively and engaged Q&A, reflecting the audience’s strong interest in the legal and regulatory challenges now facing the space sector.
The slides of her presentation are available below.
Presentation slides
