2024
IISL Elections 2024: Run-off to be held 30 August to 15 September
Dear IISL Members, The IISL Elections 2024 for Board and Officers were successfully held between 15 June and 15 July 2024. Participation in this years’ elections by IISL members in nominating and supporting candidates, and voting, was exceptionally high and we thank everyone for their participation in making the IISL Elections 2024 a truly democratic endeavour! The IISL elections this year offered one open Vice-President position (IISL Officer) and nine open positions on the IISL Board of Directors (IISL Director). The specific results will be announced soon, however there was a tie in the vote for two candidates for the ninth Director position. In accordance with the IISL Bylaws, therefore, a run-off election will be held between these two candidates between 30 August and 15 September 2024. We kindly ask you to note the run-off voting period in your schedules and heartily invite you to take part in it. The more IISL members that participate in the elections, the truer the result will be reflective of the wishes of our entire membership. We will send out another email to IISL members before the start of the run-off voting period and inform you about the voting procedures. The candidates’ nomination forms and supporting documents will be available on the website when voting opens. For your information, please find the IISL Statutes and Bylaws here.
Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition – Statements of Facts for 2025 released
IISL has released the Statements of Facts and Summary of Agreed Statements of Facts for the 2025 Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition Case: Admetus v CronusCase Concerning the Legality of Space Activities in Conflicts Find our dedicated page for the 2025 MLSLMCC here:
Obituary: H.E. Judge Vladlen S. Vereshchetin
9 August 2024 IISL is saddened to announce the passing of H.E. Judge Vladlen S. Vereshchetin on 7 August 2024. Judge Vereshchetin was a strong promoter of space law and a great supporter of IISL. He joined the Board of Directors in 1982 and served as Vice President for over ten years. The Institute awarded him the Honorary Directorship in 1994, recognizing his outstanding contribution to space law. Judge Vereshchetin was an enthusiastic supporter of IISL’s Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition and judged the World Finals for the first time in 1995 in Oslo and without interruption until he retired from the International Court of Justice, demonstrating his vivid interest in educating the young space lawyers. In 2009, he held the inaugural Nandasiri Jasentuliyana Keynote Lecture at the IISL Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space at the International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, on the topic “The Law of Outer Space in the General Legal Field (Commonality and Particularities)”, published in the IISL Proceedings. Judge Vereshchetin served as a Member of the International Court of Justice from 1995 to 2006. Before that, he was a member and Chairman of the International Law Commission, and a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. He was Professor of International Law (Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences), Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Maître émérite des Sciences of the Russian Federation (title bestowed by the President of the State). He served as Vice-Chairman and Legal Counsel, INTERCOSMOS, Russian Academy of Sciences; Deputy-Director and Head of the International Law Department of the Institute of State and Law (Moscow); Member of the USSR delegations to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its Legal Subcommittee. He has published widely in the area of international law, in particular the law of outer space, international judicial settlement and the theory of international law. IISL will miss him dearly as will the whole space community. We were privileged by his interest and engagement in space law and our Institute. Officers and Presidents Emeriti of IISL
IISL Happy Hour #16 held
IISL Happy Hours are events coordinated and co-hosted by IISL Members Setsuko Aoki and Quentin Verspieren. This is a monthly 60-minute program starting with a presentation by an IISL member about a recent project or study, followed by a free discussion session during which all participating IISL members are invited to chat and report on their relevant activities. For the 16th IISL Happy Hour, Dr. Nomfuneko Majaja, Chief Director for Space Affairs at the Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa, and former COPUOS/LSC Chair gave a presentation titled “South African Space Policy & Law”, starting from the foundational Space Affairs Act of 1993, and providing first-hand information on subsequent domestic developments, including the founding of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in 2010. She insisted on the importance of space as a driver of socio-economic development in national space efforts in South Africa. She then delved into one of the most recent significant developments of national space policy: the drafting of a South African Space Industry Regulatory Bill. The bill has two main pillars: (1) creating an environment conducive of industry development, and (2) maintaining continuous supervision and control over space activities under the jurisdiction of South Africa, with an emphasis on space safety and sustainability. Dr. Majaja also expressed South Africa’s interest for emerging challenges in space: legal framework for resource utilisation, dark and quiet skies, debris mitigation and remediation, in-orbit services, etc. She reaffirmed the recognition of COPUOS as the main place for multilateral space engagement and South Africa’s ratification of the four main space law treaties (South Africa did not sign nor ratify the Moon Agreement). Finally, she presented regional efforts on space law capacity building, including the creation of specialised space law programmes in higher education organisations, the organisation of the Africa Region Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition for more than 10 years, etc. The presentation was followed by an active Q&A session. Attending IISL members then shared updates on their recent activities and new members introduced themselves to the community. The video recording of the 16th IISL Happy Hour is available below.
Academics at Durham Law School and St Andrews University launch global online survey on contact with extraterrestrial intelligence
The survey is available in four languages (English, German, French and Spanish), with additional invitations in Arabic and Chinese. For the invitations containing further information and the links to the survey see the link below.
Register for IISL Happy Hour #16
Dear IISL members, We hope you are having beautiful summer vacation. The 16th IISL Happy Hour will be held on 1 August 2024, 1230-1330 (could be extended 1400) CEST. For this occasion, An IISL member and former COPUOS/ LSC chair, Dr. Nomfuneko Majaja will talk on “Space & Law: a South African Perspective including African Capacity Building in Space Law”. She is CD Space Affairs; Africa Regional Coordinator: Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition. In order to receive the meeting link, please register using the link below.
2024 IISL Elections – voting period closed
The Voting Period for the IISL 2024 Elections is now closed and the links to the voting forms are disabled. We thank all members who took part in the elections! The Election Committee will publish the results of the elections soon.
REMINDER:Take part in the 2024 IISL Elections!
Voting in the 2024 IISL Board Elections opened on 15 June and will remain open until July 15, 23:59 CEST. Be sure to take part in our 2024 Elections! Voting is open to all individual and institutional IISL Members in good standing. You can find more information on the elections as well as the candidates’ profiles and the voting forms on our website at 2024 IISL ELECTIONS. Please note that there are two separate polls: the vote for IISL Vice-President and IISL Directors. Each one requires a separate confirmation of the vote via the “submit” button. You will also receive two separate emails to confirm your participation in the IISL Elections – one for your vote in the Vice-President Poll and one for your vote in the Directors Poll. Conformation emails are sent out manually and it can take up to 7 days to receive the confirmation email. Note to all members who have already voted in both Polls, Vice-President and Directors: please track in your inbox of your email address registered with IISL if you have received two separate confirmation emails confirming your participation in each of the two polls. If you have only received one confirmation email, but intended to vote in both Polls, one of your votes has not gone through and you can revisit our website to submit your vote in the missing Poll again. Please contact webmaster@iisl.space in case of technical difficulties and add this email address to your contacts so that our communications are not marked as spam by your email client. You can vote for the following positions: CLICK HERE TO FIND MORE INFORMATION HERE: IISL 2024 Elections
Call for participation in the IISL Working Group on the Future of the Moon Agreement
Dear Members, Prospective Members, and Friends of the International Institute for Space Law (IISL), We are pleased to invite you to participate in the newly established Working Group on the Future of the Moon Agreement. Working Group Overview In light of the ongoing efforts to set up a framework to govern the utilization of space resources as well as the plans to return to Moon, the Working Group on the Future of the Moon Agreement, under the auspices of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), aims at exploring the contribution that the Agreement can give to this process. Despite the limited number of States Parties to it, the Moon Agreement remains the only existing international treaty specifically designed to regulate human activities on a celestial body, hence it seems worth to reflect upon the lessons to be learned from its drafting history and provisions and its relevance in today’s space environment. You can find more details on the Working Group IISL page and the Call for participation below.
IISL at IAU conference
At the conference on “Communicating astronomy with the Public” of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which was held at the Cité de l’Espace in Toulouse, IISL President Kai-Uwe Schrogl gave a keynote on the policy and legal aspects to deal with light pollution and radiofrequency interference from space objects. The presentation (download below) built on the recent IISL study on this topic (download here) and the co-sponsorship by IISL of the respective UNCOPUOS documents led by the IAU. Please also see the press coverage in La Tribune Toulouse here.