The 2022 IISL General Assembly was held on 12 November 2022 in an online format, made possible with the kind support of HawkEye360, and was well attended with 63 participants in the meeting. Among the participants were officers, directors, and new and old IISL members, including Larry Martinez in his role of IISL Parliamentarian.
The event was started off with introductory remarks by the IISL President Kai-Uwe Schrogl, who depicted the activities of the Institute in the geopolitical context and emphasised the need for international cooperation. He emphasised the important role of IISL members globally to contribute to upholding the rule of law in outer space and concluded the introductory remarks with the declaration that IISL has the most prominent voice of NGO’s working towards maintaining the rule of law in outer space. In his Annual Report, which followed, he outlined the many activities of the Institute and the great engagement of its membership. He outlined his action plan for the next three years, focussing on: IISL’s relevance for practitioners and law-making, digital transformation, extension and inclusiveness and generation change (presentation here).
The GA then established an Ethics Committee with Terms of Reference based on an IISL Code of Ethics (a separate newsitem will follow with a detailed introduction to this new body of IISL). Following the Financial Report by Treasurer Dennis Burnett, the Audit Report was adopted by the GA providing the management of the Institute with a positive assessment. Further reports were given on the IISL Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition, on conferences, publications, social media and awards.
Finally, the election results were presented by Les Tennen with the following members elected: IISL President: Kai-Uwe Schrogl elected with 90 votes; IISL Vice-President: Lesley-Jane Smith elected with 53 votes; IISL Directors: Martha Mejia-Kaiser reelected with 85 votes, Peter Martinez reelected with 82 votes, Scarlet O’Donnell elected with 64 votes and Helen Tung elected with 63 votes. In addition, the deliberations of the Committee proposing Honorary Directors, were presented by Frans von der Dunk and Skip Smith was appointed Honorary Director.
