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Sharpe, Carla; Tronchetti, Fabio --- "Legal aspects of public manned spaceflight and space station operations" [2015] ELECD 257; in von der Dunk, Frans (ed), "Handbook of Space Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015) 618

Book Title: Handbook of Space Law

Editor(s): von der Dunk, Frans

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781000359

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Legal aspects of public manned spaceflight and space station operations

Author(s): Sharpe, Carla; Tronchetti, Fabio

Number of pages: 44

Abstract/Description:

Despite experience with space stations being been fairly limited to only two space stations having been operational for a more than a few weeks, namely the Soviet/Russian Mir and the International Space Station (ISS), and experience with an international space station limited even further to only the ISS, this experience has given and continues to give rise to a distinct evolving body of legal rules and principles. Special issues concerning the applicability of such generic issues as jurisdiction, the status of astronauts and liability as arising from the space treaties, in particular the Intergovernmental Agreement underlying the ISS and the various Memoranda of Understanding, internal ESA arrangements and other bilateral or single-state implementing regulations constitute very interesting new features of space law. The IGA, for example, provides for unique legal solutions to intellectual property rights jurisdiction, in particular with a view to European participation, and criminal jurisdiction, following on from a US–Russian compromise. In addition, an extended inter-party waiver of liability and the fundamental application of the concept of time-sharing in terms of usage of the manned facilities part of the ISS are noteworthy. _ The importance of these legal discussions lies not only in the present, but extends into the future, with a view to plans for ever more extended human presence in outer space, including possible colonization of the moon, asteroids or planets, whereby the same fundamental legal issues of jurisdiction, status of ‘territory’ of astronauts, and liability issues respectively will arise and have to be addressed. Nobody would deny that mankind’s first steps into space have been challenging. As a species we have been faced with, and overcome, a variety of physical and technological challenges on our quest to reach the stars. Many more, indeed, remain. However, there is another aspect of our extra-planetary endeavours that has been equally taxing: the socio-political challenge of sovereign powers and their representatives meeting in neutral, unclaimed territory. The new human frontier, which opened over 50 years ago, was initially devoid of any framework for competing or collaborating – but no longer. It is remarkable that in just a few decades, mankind developed a system of ‘law’ to fill the void, a framework, that still continues to evolve today alongside the progressive expansion of activities beyond the earth’s orbit. Space law, which consists of a number of legal instruments, negotiated at international, regional, and national levels, aimed at regulating human activities in outer space, has been successful in preventing military confrontation in outer space and in favouring international cooperation in space projects. Space law has developed in two stages, each of them influenced by international political and economic factors: the first phase occurred during the competitive, militarily dominated era of the Cold War, the second within the more collaborative paradigm that has emerged since the early 1990s – and this is clearly illustrated in manned spaceflight, in particular in the context of space stations.