2024
26th Asia-Pacific Regional Round of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition 2024 Concluded
24 June 2024 — The Asia-Pacific Regional Round happened at Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan two years in a row and concluded its 2024 round on 9th June 2024. The Regional Round was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Space Policy Secretariat of the Cabinet Office, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and was sponsored by Anderson Mori & Tomotsune、TMI Associates, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu, Mitsubishi Corporation, Nishimura & Asahi, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, Astroscale, and Deloitte Tohmatsu Space and Security. It attracted 30 teams from India, China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia which participated in its memorial round. Sixteen teams were selected to compete in the oral rounds. Teams competed in the oral round for three preliminary rounds, as well as quarter-final, semi-final, and final rounds. Significantly, the Regional Round retained its first ever participation from the Middle East, Prince Sultan University, which was awarded the Spirit of Lachs award, a special award of the Region for a nascent team who overcame significant challenges in order to participate in the Competition. The Regional Final was judged by the honorable Ambassador Kimitake NAKAMURA (Japan), Prof. Steven FREELAND (Australia), and Prof. Kai-Uwe SCHROGL (France). The Winner of the Regional Round was Singapore Management University (Singapore) who is now the representative of the Region for the World Final in Milan. Yu TAKEUCHI, the 2024 Regional Organizer for Asia-Pacific, on behalf of the organizing committee, appreciates the three Final Judges, 19 judges who generously served as Oral Judges on site and 43 Memorial Judges who evaluated the memorial round from around the world. In addition, appreciation goes to all of the supporters, sponsors, staff members and participants who tremendously, untiringly, and enthusiastically engaged and supported the organization of the Regional Round. The Regional Round of 2025 will be organized in Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar, India and the baton of the Regional Organizer will be relayed to Prof. Divya TYAGI of that University. Lastly, the Regional Organizer would like to take this opportunity to introduce the Local Organizing Committee members, especially in recognition of the young generation, who heavily contributed to the organization. Chief Director: Prof. Souichirou KOZUKA (Japan) General Advisor: Prof. Setsuko AOKI (Japan) External Relations: Prof. Masahiko SATO (Japan) Associate Regional Organizer: Mr. Gopalakrishnan V. (India) Assistant Regional Organizer: Ms. Yui NAKAMA (Japan) Assistant Regional Organizer: Mr. Shunshi DEGUCHI (Japan) Memorials Coordinator: Mr. Bryant Mishima-BAKER (USA) Chief Clerk: Ms. Reiko KAWAI (Japan)
The 2024 Latin American Regional MLSLMCC – Photo impressions
The 2024 Regional Round of the Latin American Region of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition was successfully held. The event was organised by the Universidad Católica de Colombia. This year’s Latin American rounds of the Manfred Lachs Moot Court were held in Jaén, Spain, on May 8-9, 2024, bringing together teams from across the region to engage in a fierce legal competition. This year’s event saw an incredible display of legal and advocacy skills, culminating in the victory of the team from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), who secured their place as regional champions for the second year in a row. The UNAM team will now advance to represent Latin America in the world finals in Milan, showcasing their talent on a global stage. For more information, please see here: https://www.ucatolica.edu.co/portal/ronda-latinoamericana-de-la-manfred-lachs-space-law-moot-court-competition/ as well as on our website: https://iisl.space/index.php/latin-america-manfred-lachs-space-law-moot-court-competition/.
IISL Happy Hour #15 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 14th IISL Happy Hour, Dr. Quentin Verspieren, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at The University of Tokyo and Space Safety Programme Coordinator at the European Space Agency, presented ESA’s recent Zero Debris Charter initiative, by which the Agency facilitated the drafting of the the world’s most ambitious vision of space debris mitigation and remediation to-date. He emphasises the importance of translating globally accepted space norms (e.g. LTS Guidelines) into concrete technical targets, to drive the implementation of more virtuous practices. Dr. Verspieren also insisted on the value of non-binding instruments in establishing a bold global consensus on space sustainability issues. The presentation was followed by an active Q&A session on the compatibility of such initiative with pre-existing ones, on the importance to deal with legacy assets and on how to look beyond Zero Debris at a Circular Economy in space. Attending IISL members then shared updates on their recent activities and new members introduced themselves to the community. The video recording of the 15th IISL Happy Hour is available below.
IISL Elections 2024 – Voting period now open
IISL Members are invited to vote in the 2024 IISL Board Elections between 15 June and 15 July 2024! For taking part in the elections, please consult (via the buttons below): VOTING IS ONLY OPEN TO IISL MEMBERS IN GOOD STANDING. Find more info via the buttons below on:
IISL member news: Limina Journal – Call for Papers
IISL Member Professor Michael Bohlander in his capacity as Volume Editor for the Limina – The Journal of UAP Studies invites IISL members to take notice of the call for papers for a special volume of the Journal. Please see details below. “Alien encounter narratives in judicial proceedings” Limina – The Journal of UAP Studies | Special Volume | Call for papers Volume editor Professor Michael Bohlander Chair in Global Law and SETI Policy| Durham University | UK About the special volume The reluctance of the vast majority of SETI and some UAP researchers to take non-repeatable personal alien encounter narratives into account is a staple trope in the general alien encounter and UAP debate. However, the proof of the pudding would seem to lie in investigating the very practical consequences of the use of encounter testimony of all sorts in legal proceedings, for example, when examining how courts would react to a claim that somebody had a car accident because she was buzzed by a UFO or distracted by a sighting while driving etc. In the age of increasingly ubiquitous dashcam footage, for example, we might now even have new sources of evidence to complement the personal narrative. The papers invited for this special issue are meant to engage with the rules of the evaluation of evidence in court proceedings, take a look at the principles of forensic witness psychology, and how the interplay might influence the outcome of a case in real life. After an initial survey of potential past court cases involving alien encounter narratives of any kind in their respective countries, the papers will focus on two case studies – one civil and one criminal law – to be addressed according to each author’s domestic legal system, and on a third case study on general witness psychology. Details can be found at Call For Papers (uapstudies.org).
Register for IISL Happy Hour #15
Dear IISL Members, The 14th Happy Hour of the IISL will be held on 12 June 2024, 12:45-13:45 (CEST). It is high time we got together again to exchange views on a timely and relevant space law issue, as well as updating ourselves as space law family members. The theme on 12 June is “the Zero Debris Charter” as the world’s most ambitious technical vision of space debris mitigation and remediation to date. The speaker is Dr. Quentin Verspieren, an IISL member, and the safety program coordinator of the European Space Agency (ESA) who has been the project manager of the Zero Debris Charter. In order to receive the meeting link, please register using the link below.
IISL 2024 Elections – nominations period closed
The nominations period for the 2024 IISL Elections has come to an end, and we would like to sincerely thank all members who participated – through being nominated, or through supporting nominations – this year. The Election Committee will publish the names of nominees for the vacant positions soon. The voting period will take place between 15 June and 15 July 2024.
IISL at UN Space Conference in Portugal
15 May 2024. IISL’s President spoke at the UN/Portugal conference “Management and Sustainability of Outer Space Activities” (conference site here). This conference was held in view of the UN Summit of the Future in autumn and built on the Policy Brief on space in preparation of it. IISL’s President Kai-Uwe Schrogl gave a presentation (download below) on IISL‘s contributions to the management and sustainability of outer space activities and offered to make IISL available for anyfollow-up of the Summit of the Future and its Pact for the Future.
2024 IISL Board Elections Season opened
Submit your candidacy or nomination until 15 May 2024 The IISL Election Committee, currently comprising Leslie I. Tennen, George D. Kyriakopoulos, and Olga Volynskaya, invites IISL members to take part in the 2024 IISL Board Elections. Positions available All IISL Members in good standing are entitled to put themselves forward for the following elected positions on the Board: One of the Institute’s Vice President function is currently vacant. The names of the IISL Directors whose term of office expires are: Marco Ferrazzani, Fabio Tronchetti, Ranjana Kaul, Masahiko Sato, Jenni Tapio, Joanne Gabrynowicz, Olavo de Oliveira Bittencourt Neto, and Guoyu Wang. Furthermore, there is an open position vacated by Lesley Jane Smith on becoming Vice President. Procedure A candidate is to be nominated by an IISL Member in good standing and supported by five IISL Members in good standing, and must confirm agreement with being nominated. For further details please refer to the full terms of the IISL Statutes and By-Laws, available at https://iisl.space/index.php/statutes-and-bylaws/. The candidates for the IISL Board positions are to submit ONLINE a Nomination Form. For your candidacy to be considered, please make sure that TWO FORMS are duly submitted (one by YOU and another one by YOUR NOMINATOR). We kindly remind you that nominations received after May 15, 2024 cannot be considered. Links to online nomination forms For the Nominee: here For the Nominator: here For the Supporters of the nomination: here Please note that there is no save and edit later function, therefore you have to allocate enough time for filling it out. We would recommend you to have the text ready in word and copy paste it to the online form. Prior to filling in the forms, you have to get confirmations from the nominator and five supporters (as you will be asked to specify the date on which the consent has been given). Voting period and voting procedure In accordance with the IISL Statutes and By-Laws the Election Committee is authorized to draw up the list of qualifying candidates, supervise the election process, and count the votes. Voting shall take place between June 15 and July 15, 2024. Please note that there is only one vote per institutional member, and the IISL Election Committee must be notified as soon as possible (and definitely prior to voting) as to who is the designated Point of Contact (POC). Please also note that while not formally prohibited to nominate / support, the Committee suggests that for ethical reasons, members who stand for election should abstain from nominating / supporting other candidates.
IISL Board of Directors adopts Resolution on Committee Chair Term Limits
During its Spring Meeting 2024, the IISL Board of Directors adopted a resolution concerning the length of term of Chairs of its committees. The Resolution was adopted during its Board Meeting on 27 April 2024. The text of the resolution can be viewed and downloaded below.