News
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.
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).