Publication

2024
Seasonal Greetings
December 31, 2024

Dear IISL Members,The year is coming to an end and we would like to extend our heartfelt best wishes to all of you and wish you a successful 2025! Thank you for your interest and continued engagement and for making IISL successful and offering a valuable contribution to the space (law) world! As a special seasonal gift to all of you, we are very happy to share with you the link to our newest publication. Our esteemed member and Honorary Director of IISL Dr. Steven Doyle, in meticulous work, has written about the life and work, as well as his personal experience with Andrew G. Haley – one of the very first space lawyers. Enjoy this time travel to the early days of space law and the creation of the IISL, IAA, and IAF, in a well documented and fascinating account of a first hand witness! Click on the gift to open the ebook! With our best wishes,  IISL  PS. Please note that the date for the next IISL Happy Hour is Thursday, 30 January 2025 at 12:30 – 13:30 h CET. 

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2024
Submission of the Working Group on the Future of the Moon Agreement to UN COPUOS
December 14, 2024

On 15 November 2024, the Working Group on the Future of the Moon Agreement submitted an answer to UNOOSA’s Invitation Circular OOSA/2024/43 CU 2024/221. The circular was distributed under the initiative of the Legal Subcommittee’s Working Group on Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activities, and invited Committee members and permanent observers to provide contributions on elements for an initial draft set of recommended principles for space resource activities. The Invitation Circular as well as the IISL Working Group on the Future of the Moon Agreement’s response can be viewed and downloaded below. More information on the Working Group is available on the dedicated IISL website of the Working Group.

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2024
IISL at IAU conference
June 26, 2024

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.

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2024
IISL member news: Limina Journal – Call for Papers
June 10, 2024

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).

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2023
Happy New Year from the IISL!
January 9, 2024

IISL wishes all of its members a wonderful 2024! Starting off the year with a remarkable flashback to the beginnings of space law, we are delighted to make available to you another IISL publication, prepared by our esteemed member and Honorary Director of IISL Stephen E. Doyle. The book “Pioneers of Space Law: Vladimir Mandl” features a republication of Vladimir Mandl’s “Das Weltraum-Recht – Ein Problem der Raumfahrt” (Space Law – A Problem of Space Travel) of 1932: the first monograph ever published on space law. The present edition features a biographical description of the life of Mandl (Chapter 1), a copy of the original 48 page monograph in German (Chapter 2), a comprehensive translation of the monograph in English (Chapter 3), and concluding remarks by the author (Chapter 4). With this, a book that has become sparse after World War II is made accessible again to all space lawyers, together with excellent and timely commentary by the author. On Stephen E. Doyle: In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s Steve studied at Boston College, the University of Massachusetts, Duke Law School, and McGill University’s Institute for Air and Space Law. For more than four decades he worked closely with government officials, aerospace industry experts, and with national and international space policy makers from every part of the world to help formulate many existing space laws and policies. His exceptional experience and vision enable him to contribute significantly to continuing development of space law and policy. We sincerely thank Stephen Doyle and the IISL Directorate of Studies chaired by Stephan Hobe for their commitment and wish all members a delightful time travel to the early days of space law and happy reading! Please find the link to download below:Stephen E. Doyle, Pioneers of Space Law: Vladimir Mandl (1899-1941), IISL Directorate of Studies 2023

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