November 2023
RESULTS: 32nd Annual Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court World Finals
The 32nd Annual Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court World Finals were held on Thursday, October 5 at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan in its capitol, Baku. Presiding were three justices on the International Court of Justice: Her Excellency Judge Xue, His Excellency Judge Brant and His Excellency Judge Tomka. The students who pleaded the fictitious case of Argyliam v. Koligian, authored by George Kyriakopoulos, were winners of competitions among 73 teams across the regions of Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Competing in the preliminary and semi-final rounds were the Latin American regional winner, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; the African regional winner, the University of Calabar, in Nigeria; the Asia-Pacific regional winner, China University of Political Science and Law; the European regional winner, the University of Cologne, Germany; and the North American regional winner, the USAF Air Command and Staff College, from the United States. Pleading in the World Finals were Christina Schmitz and Verena Celina S. for the University of Cologne and Huang Rixin and Zhuo Linling for China University of Political Science. The judges declared China University of Political Science and Law as the winner and voted Christina Schmitz, of the University of Cologne, the Best Oralist. The Best Memorials award was presented to China University of Political Science and Law. The memorials judges for the competition finals were Michael Dodge, Rebecca Connolly, Laura Garry, Zuzanna Kulinska – Kępa, Christopher J. Newman, Jinyuan Su, Guoyu Wang, Deepika Jeyakodi, Annie Handmer (PhD) and Anne-Sophie MARTIN, Ph.D🪐💫. The judges of the preliminary round were Olavo Bittencourt Neto, Dr. Ulrike M. (Ulla) Bohlmann and Michelle L.D. Hanlon. The judges of the semi-final rounds were Henry Hertzfeld, Frans von der Dunk, Dr. Ranjana Kaul, Guoyu Wang, Tanja Masson-Zwaan and George Kyriakopoulos.
III Seminario Internacional de Derecho Internacional
[English below] La Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas te invita al III Seminario Internacional de Derecho Internacional, a llevarse a cabo en línea los días 6 y 7 de diciembre. La asistencia es gratuita. IISL Member of the Board of Directors Martha Mejía-Kaiser and IISL Members Irmgard Marboe y Catherine Doldirina, miembros del Instituto Internacional de Derecho Espacial, presentarán temas en el panel de derecho espacial. Te puedes registrar en el siguiente enlace: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVXbEpYeILxwsI1BueZ8rbd1Uhz4_dkRgpHepN3X4hoAEfzQ/viewform The Faculty of Law of the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas invites you to the III International Seminar on International Law, to be held online on 6 and 7 December. Attendance is free of charge. Irmgard Marboe, Catherine Doldirina and Martha Mejía-Kaiser, members of the International Institute of Space Law, will present topics in the space law panel. You can register at the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVXbEpYeILxwsI1BueZ8rbd1Uhz4_dkRgpHepN3X4hoAEfzQ/viewform
ISPL to offer course on Space Warfare
The London Institute for Space Policy and Law (ISPL) is running a short course on Space Warfare at the end of this month. This Course provides an overview and general understanding of conflict in and through space. The legal, policy and other political factors concerning military and security operations in outer space and the role of space assets in warfare will be considered. Placement of weapons in space and the deployment of space capabilities in terrestrial conflicts will be examined, including considerations affecting deployment of dual-use systems. The course will be held on 29 March 2023. The announcement, programme, and application details are available at https://www.space-institute.org/space-warfare-course/.
Annual Standing Committee Reports
At the meeting of the IISL Board of Directors held at Brighton, United Kingdom, in October 1987, the Board decided to create a standing committee of the Institute to prepare and submit at each annual Colloquium a report on the status of agreements relating to activities in outer space.Institute members who can contribute substantively to the work of the committee are invited to serve on it. Membership is open to any interested IISL member. The committee members help collect, review and verify data concerning selected space agreements. Agreements of general global applicability or regional applicability are selected for reporting. Bilateral agreements are not included in the report. In general, the agreements included in these reports, and their status, are believed to be valid as of the dates indicated in the respective reports. 2020-2021 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2021 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2020-2021 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2021 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001
Eleventh Nandasiri Jasentuliyana Keynote Lecture on Space Law 2019
Each year since 2009, at the International Astronautical Congress, the Nandasiri Jasentuliyana Keynote Lecture on Space Law is presented by a leading expert on space law. The 2019 Nandasiri Jasentuliyana Keynote Lecture on Space Law was presented at the IISL colloquium during the IAC in Washington D.C., United States. It was given by Setsuko Aoki and entitled International Cooperation Mechanisms in Outer Space Activities for the Next Decade. The keynote lecture is published in the IISL Proceedings 2019. The text of the keynote lecture can be accessed here.
In memoriam: Edward R. Finch Jr. (1919-2011)
Edward R. Finch, Jr., a longtime member of IISL, passed away on 4 September 2011 at the age of 92. Ambassador Finch was a member of the U.S. delegation to UNISPACE in 1982 and 1999 and a Permanent NGO Representative to COPUOS. He was on the Board of Directors of the National Space Society and he was a member of the Space Law Committee of the American Branch of ILA. One of his books was ASTRO BUSINESS; A GUIDE TO COMMERCE AND LAW OF SPACE. He was proud of his military service in World War II. He received many awards including the U.S. Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Clusters, the Order of the British Empire, and the Legion of Honor of France. He was gregarious, enthusiastic and a great teller of stories at his dinner table where he often entertained his family and his many friends.
In memoriam: Eduardo Gaggero (1937-2011)
Sadly, Dr Eduardo Gaggero is no longer with us. His friends and colleagues remember him as a figure of great renown in the field of air and space law, not only on the international scene but also as head of CIDA-E, the Uruguayan Centre for Air and Space Law, which he loved so much and conducted so well. Winning hearts and minds in the various institutions to which he belonged was no more than a natural consequence of his friendliness and kind personality. He was a long-time member of the IISL, and also made CIDA-E one of the Institute’s first institutional members. Dr. Gaggero followed the steps of Alvaro Bauza Araujo, a famous Uruguayan law professor, who launched one of the first books on space law in Latin America in 1957 entitled “Towards an Astronautical Law”. Bauza Araujo was then the Uruguayan pioneer in this new branch of the legal sciences. Gaggero was also a pioneer, in his case in the hard challenge of research, teaching and dissemination of space law. He wrote a number of interesting papers on the subject, as well as on air law. He made an important contribution to the elaboration of the first Uruguayan document on Space Policy, adopted by the National Commission of Aeronautical Policy in 1975. That same year, Dr. Gaggero was appointed director of CIDA-E, a recently set up national institution to promote research and development and disseminate knowledge in the aerospace fields, where he worked with dedication encouraging the ratification of the Space Treaties to which Uruguay was not yet a party. Efforts were not in vain: by 1981 Uruguay had already ratified the Moon Agreement. CIDA-E, with the support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, promoted the Third Space Conference of the Americas (Punta del Este, 1996). Uruguay assumed the Pro Tempore Secretariat of the Conference, a position held by this country until the celebration of the Fourth Conference in 2002. During those six years, CIDA-E, always presided by Gaggero, organized various seminars covering different aspects of space activities. In those daysthe country became extremely active in many areas of the field, especially the law of outer space. A firm supporter of the idea that the teaching of space law should be an important element of a country’s foreign policy, Dr. Gaggero joined enthusiastically in the pursuance of the creation of a Regional Centre for Space Law Studies, proposed by the present authors, with the purpose of organizing space law courses in the Latin American countries. In 2007, Dr. Gaggero and the present writers worked together in Montevideo at a regional conference arranged on the initiative of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science with the full support of the then recently founded Uruguayan Society for the Progress of Science and Technology. During a Round Table dealing with the legal aspects of space activities, to his great satisfaction, a declaration was adopted by consensus, currently known as the Montevideo Declaration, as a follow up to the Buenos Aires (2004) Declaration on the subject. Dr. Gaggero’s contribution to the objectives of the IISL were numerous and based on the authority of his experience as delegate of his country to COPUOS. In this sense his papers ‘International Cooperation in Space: a Uruguayan point of view’ (Budapest 1983) and ‘Space Law Teaching in Uruguay’ (Innsbruck 1986) went a long way in lightening up the thinking of Uruguay in other countries and continents. To cite just a few of his other excellent papers:• Space law: reflections upon its evolution at the beginnings of the third millennium (Journal of the Universidad de Scezin, 1989)• Developing countries and space: From awareness to participation (CIDA-E, February 2003)• New roles in space for the 21st. century: a Uruguayan view (Space Policy, August 2003). The striking feature of Dr. Gaggero’s papers is their being, at the same time, scholarly and practical. In fact, it is fair to say that, over the years, he was the example of a -nearly perfect- equilibrium between idealism and pragmatism which is so important in the world of today. No doubt Dr. Gaggero’s life-work for the progressive development of space law will go down in history. A bright team of his disciples now remains to continue his efforts and pursue the objectives of CIDA-E, in Uruguay and the world, under the powerful guidance of his teachings and example. On behalf of the IISL Board of Directors Maureen Williams (Argentina/UK) and José Monserrat Filho (Brazil)
The Law of Outer Space, An Experience in Contemporary Law Making
The IISL republished The Law of Outer Space, An Experience in Contemporary Law Making by Judge Manfred Lachs. The new edition was edited by Prof. Tanja Masson-Zwaan and Prof. Stephan Hobe and published by Nijhoff/Brill. Publisher: Brill | Nijhoff Brochure
In memoriam: S. Neil Hosenball (1925-2009)
Our member S. Neil Hosenball passed away on 23 December 2009. He was born in New York, and was a graduate of Harvard University law school. He was a lawyer in Cleveland before joining the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). After many years as Deputy General Counsel, Dr. Hosenball served as NASA’s General Counsel from 1975-1985. He participated in the drafting of the UN treaties on the peaceful uses of outer space, among other issues. Through his work in UNCOPUOS, Dr. Hosenball was key in formulating and negotiating the 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. He received a Presidential Rank Award in the early 1980s. After retiring from NASA, he was appointed as the first Director of the Center for Space Law and Policy at the University of Colorado. He became a partner at Davis, Graham and Stubbs, where he started a space law practice. Dr S. Neil Hosenball was a longtime and dedicated member of the IISL and a recipient of its Certificate of Merit in 1985. Stephen Doyle adds: During the late 1970s and early 1980s Neil and I worked together on UN delegations, ITU matters, and other international agreement activities involving space. Mr. Hosenball served on or led US Delegations to the Legal Subcommittee of the UN-COPUOS during the 1970s when the committee was considering the 1972 Convention on Liability, the 1975 Convention on Registration of Space Objects, and negotiations leading to the 1979 Moon Treaty, which entered into force in 1984. Mr. Hosenball participated occasionally at collooquia of the IISL during his years at NASA, but as a senior government official, he avoided accepting positions of office or directorship of NGOs. He was a diligent negotiator and a creative attorney who made significant contributions to the development of space law, especially during the years he served as General Counsel to NASA. Nandasiri Jasentuliyana adds: Neil was one of the most effective US negotiators in the UN-COPUOS perhaps because he was the least confrontational under all circumstances and maintaining a very friendly approach though because of his sharpness remained a super negotiator always getting what he considered was reasonable to get (nothing more nothing less). He wrote perhaps the most authoritative academic articles on the treaties he had negotiated. They appeared in the Journal of Space Law. He contributed equally authoritative chapter in my Manual on Space Law. Neil as a member of IISL presented a couple of papers. He was a good friend and a wonderful human being. Eugeniusz Wyzner adds: As Neil Hosenball was a member and eventually head of the United States delegation to the Legal Subcommittee of COPUOS throughout the years when I served as its chairman, we worked closely together, in particular during the sessions of the Subcommittee. Neil was not only an outstanding scholar of Outer Space law, but also a skillful negotiator with a vision of a common goal and a true, reliable friend. In Neil Hosenball’s capacity as NASA General Counsel he had been drafting the instructions for the US delegation to the Subcommittee. He told me once half-jokingly that this made it easier for him to be more flexible in negotiating provisions of Outer Space treaties as the head of the US delegation. Indeed, his negotiating skills and expertise greatly contributed to the codification of Outer Space law in the form of universal treaties (where every word had to be approved by consensus), a significant achievement in the era of Cold War. Michel Bourély, Former Legal Adviser, ESA adds: Dans ma carrière à l’ESA, j’avais eu à affronter Neil Hosenball comme adversaire dans une difficile négociation avec la NASA. Je connaissais donc ses grandes qualités professionnelles, auxquelles je tiens à rendre hommage aujourd’hui.
Space Law: a Bibliography – 1958-1994
Space Law: a Bibliography, a cumulative index of the Proceedings of IISL Colloquia, 1958-1994 (UN, 1996, V.96-81142-March 1996). This Bibliography contains a cumulative index of the Proceedings of IISL Colloquia, 1958-1994, searchable by author and by topic, available here.