Air and Space Law Commons^™

Scoping National Space Law: The True Meaning Of “National Activities In Outer Space” Of Article Vi Of The Outer Space Treaty, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty, requiring “authorization and continuing supervision” of “national activities in outer space” including those of “nongovernmental entities,” has always been viewed as the primary international obligation driving the establishment of national space legislation for the purpose of addressing private sector space activities. As the Article itself did not provide any further guidance on precisely what categories of “national activities by nongovernmental entities” should thus be subjected to national space law and in particular to a national licensing regime, in academia generally three different interpretations soon came to be put forward on how to interpret …

Autonomous Doctrine: Operationalizing The Law Of Armed Conflict In The Employment Of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, Peter C. Combe Ii

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Exoatmospheric Plowshares: Using A Nuclear Explosive Device For Planetary Defense Against An Incoming Asteroid, David A. Koplow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

What should be done if we suddenly discover a large asteroid on a collision course with Earth? The consequences of an impact could be enormous—scientists believe that such a strike 60 million years ago led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, and something of similar magnitude could happen again. Although no such extraterrestrial threat now looms on the horizon, astronomers concede that they cannot detect all the potentially hazardous “near-Earth objects,” and even more striking, they acknowledge that if such a danger were discerned, there is currently no proven capability for diverting or destroying it.

One possible response to this …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Satellite Law, Frans Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

International satellite law can best be described as that subset of international space law that addresses the operations of satellites in orbit around the Earth. Excluding, therefore, topics such as manned space flight, suborbital space operations, and any activities beyond Earth orbits, this means addressing the use of satellites for telecommunications purposes, for Earth observation and remote sensing, and for positioning, timing, and navigation. These three major sectors of space activities are, in addition to jointly being subject to the body of international space law, each subject to their specific dedicated legal regime —international satellite communications law, international satellite remote …

The Regulation Of Space Tourism, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

Space tourism has to be regulated as a subset of private spaceflight activities, whereby humans are sent to outer space in a fundamentally private context. In addition to space law, air law would be relevant for addressing private spaceflight, but neither regime has at the international level regulated relevant activities to any appreciable extent. They provide little more than a set of guiding overarching principles. Much of the onus of future regulation will fall on the shoulders of individual states, most notably the United States. In the more distant future, this may result in a special international regime, using elements …

Legal Challenges In The Context Of The European Space Policy, Frans Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

Introduction

If institutionalism is about the extent to which institutions influence the political and legal realms, and (political) neoinstitutionalism in that respect stresses the extent to which decisions by political actors are framed by institutions, European space policy would present a very interesting example thereof.

It should be noted, however, that this contribution addresses the issue of European space policy from a predominantly legal vantage point, not that of political science, meaning that even such concepts as “policy” and “institution” are first and foremost being discussed in their legal connotation and context, read from the perspective of a lawyer. Such …

¿De Quién Son La Luna Y Los Demás Cuerpos Celestes?, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

Probablemente esta sea la imagen más conocida de una bandera que se haya hecho nunca: Buzz Aldrin de pie junto a la primera bandera de EE UU clavada en la Luna. Pero para los que conocían la historia universal, también saltaron las alarmas. En la Tierra, hace menos de un siglo, clavar una bandera nacional en otra parte del mundo todavía equivalía a reclamar ese territorio. ¿Las barras y estrellas en la Luna significaron la creación de una colonia estadounidense?

Cuando la gente escucha por primera vez que soy un abogado que ejerce y enseña algo llamado «derecho espacial», la …

Who Owns The Moon? A Space Lawyer Answers, Frans Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

Most likely, this is the best-known picture of a flag ever taken: Buzz Aldrin standing next to the first U.S. flag planted on the Moon. For those who knew their world history, it also rang some alarm bells. Only less than a century ago, back on Earth, planting a national flag in another part of the world still amounted to claiming that territory for the fatherland. Did the Stars and Stripes on the moon signify the establishment of an American colony?

When people hear for the first time that I am a lawyer practicing and teaching something called “space law,” …

Private Property Rights And The Public Interest In Exploration Of Outer Space, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

The impending missions to exploit natural resources of celestial bodies may at some point start interfering with the scientific interests, including those of astrobiology, in these bodies. While the legal status of celestial bodies at the highest level is clear, uncertainty has arisen as to the extent private property rights over such objects or over their resources are legally acceptable, legally impossible, or potentially legal. This also provides for a considerable amount of uncertainty regarding how the legal framework could or may need to be changed to accommodate private interests. The article analyzes the two main international treaties relevant from …

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Their Use Of Satellite Services And (Space) Law, Frans Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

This chapter represents an effort to identify the components of international space law that apply to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It argues that, while other national and international regimes of law apply to UAV activities, international space law is implicated only to the extent that UAV technology relies on satellite services for control and guidance purposes.

Asteroid Mining: International And National Legal Aspects, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

1. Introduction; Asteroid Mining and the Law … 2. The International Legal Context for Asteroid Mining—The Outer Space Treaty … 3. The International Legal Context for Asteroid Mining—The Moon Agreement … 4. Back to the Outer Space Treaty: Interpreting the Nonappropriation Prohibition … 5. Unilateral Action: Title IV, U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act … 6. Concluding Remarks

Asteroid mining is one of the hot topics today not only within the space arena at large but also in the more specific domain of space law, comprising “every legal or regulatory regime having a significant impact, even if implicitly or indirectly, …

Some Remarks Further To "Outer Space And International Geography: Article Ii And The Shape Of Global Order" By P. J. Blount, Frans Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

Introduction ... The Key Role of Article II of the Outer Space Treaty ... Article II of the Outer Space Treaty and the Commercialization of Outer Space ... Space Mining: The Need for an Update of the Legal Framework ... Updating the Existing Legal Framework: Some Further Thoughts ... Concluding Remarks

The European Union And Space—Space For Competition?, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

From the inception of European integration, a regime trying to regulate and arrange competition as much as considered necessary for the benefit of society at large has been one of the core elements of the European Union’s legal order. While the European Union has over the past few decades become more and more involved in the European space effort, this has so far hardly given rise to fundamental application of this competition regime to space activities, even if space also in Europe increasingly has become commercialized and privatized. The current paper investigates the reasons and rationale for this special situation, …

Neutrality And Outer Space, Wolff Heintschel Von Heinegg

International Law Studies

This article discusses the law of neutrality as it pertains to belligerent operations in and through outer space as well as belligerent outer space operations involving the territory and national airspace of neutral States. As far as the latter is concerned, the traditional law of neutrality is fully applicable. Accordingly, international law prohibits belligerents from launching space objects from neutral territory or through neutral national airspace. While neutral States may not provide belligerents with outer space assets or the use of communications infrastructure located in their territories, they are not obliged to prevent their nationals from providing any of the …

Space Weapons And The Law, Bill Boothby

International Law Studies

Outer space is of vital importance for numerous civilian and military functions in the modern world. The idea of a space weapon involves something used, intended or designed for employment in, to or from outer space to cause injury or damage to the enemy during an armed conflict. Non-injurious, non-damaging space activities that adversely affect enemy military operations or capacity, though not involving the use of weapons, will nevertheless be methods of warfare. Article III of the Outer Space Treaty makes it clear that international law, including weapons law, applies in outer space. Accordingly, the superfluous injury/unnecessary suffering and indiscriminate …

Space Law And Gnss—A Look At The Legal Frameworks For “Outer Space”, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), obviously, make crucial use of satellites operating in an area commonly known as “outer space,” raising issues regarding which specific body of law might rule the operations of such satellite systems. Though the “horizontal” boundary between outer space and the underlying area of airspaces has never been authoritatively defined, it has generally been agreed that those two areas differ fundamentally as to the legal regimes ruling them, giving rise indeed to a specific body of “space law.”

Air Traffic Control: How Mexican Cartels Are Utilizing Drones To Traffic Narcotics Into The United States, Britton Shields

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

The Second African National Space Law: The Nigerian Nasrda Act And The Draft Regulations On Licensing And Supervision, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

The number of countries with more or less comprehensive national space legislation addressing in particular the authorization and supervision of private space activities continues to grow, and several more countries are currently in the process of adding themselves to that list. One of the more recent and most interesting ones among them is Nigeria, as the second African country after South Africa and—after Brazil—the second leading spacefaring nation from the developing world, to draft, further to a fairly recently established succinct framework law, a set of regulations addressing precisely those issues.

The paper briefly recaps the underlying international obligations, in …

Terrorist Watchlists, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This chapter assesses the legal history and policy development of the U.S. government's system of terrorist watchlists and the institutions established to create and use them. Watchlisting is in fact an old practice given new meaning by technological change and the societal impact of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Statutes and judicial precedents from an earlier era on which the first post-9/11 watchlists were built were not made to regulate the expanded uses of the new watchlists and presented few if any constraints on their development. Civil litigation has both revealed the inner workings of terrorist watchlists and spurred …

Finding The Balance Between Price And Protection: Establishing A Surface-To-Air Fire Risk-Reduction Training Policy For Air-Carrier Pilots, Earl W. Burress Jr.

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Currently, U.S. air carriers do not provide equipment or training necessary to mitigate the risk posed by surface-to-air fire (SAFIRE) threats. These threats consist of self-guided weapons (infrared shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles), manually-aimed threats (small arms, recoilless grenade launchers, rockets, and light anti-aircraft artillery), and hand-held lasers. Technological solutions to counter infrared shoulder-fired missiles have been explored, but were rejected due to prohibitive equipment and maintenance costs. A lower cost option, providing air-carrier pilots with SAFIRE risk-reduction training, has not been formally addressed by the air-carrier industry or the U.S. federal government. This effort will use a business concept, the Cost-Benefit …

The European Union And The Outer Space Treaty: Will The Twain Ever Meet?, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

In spite of the envisaged Brexit and other crises and problems currently threatening the European Union (EU), that half-way house between a group of cooperating states and a single quasi-federal union of states remains an important player in today’s world, also – at least from a bird’s eye view – in terms of outer space. Its member states Germany and France have the largest space budgets of all European states (discounting the Russian Federation as a European state), and the European flagship projects Galileo and Copernicus, with the European Commission on behalf of the Union in the driver’s seat, are …

Transfer Of Ownership In Orbit: From Fiction To Problem, Frans Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

For many years, the concept of transfer of ownership of a satellite in orbit was not something on the radar screen of anyone seriously involved in space law, if indeed it was not considered a concept of an essentially fictional nature. Space law after all developed, as far as the key UN treaties were concerned, in a period when only States—and only very few States at that—were interested in and possessed the capability of conducting space activities, and they did so for largely military/strategic or scientific purposes. The idea of transferring ownership over satellites or other spacecraft involved in such …

Kiwis In Space: New Zealand’S “Outer Space And High-Altitude Activities Act”, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

The number of countries with more or less comprehensive national space legislation that addresses in particular the authorization and supervision of private space activities continues to grow, and several more countries are currently in the process of adding themselves to that list. One of the more recent ones among them is New Zealand, which has an extensive “Outer Space and High-Altitude Activities Act” that is to enter into force in December 2017.

The paper briefly recaps the general underlying international obligations, in particular as following from Articles VI, VII, and VIII of the Outer Space Treaty, the Liability Convention, and …

Space Traffic Management Concepts Leveraging Existing Frameworks, Stephen K. Hunter

Space Traffic Management Conference

Leveraging existing U.S. regulatory frameworks, as well as international organizations, will dramatically shorten the time needed to develop an effective Space Traffic Management concept. Both the Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation have been working with the U.S. Congress to define and develop a Space Traffic Management concept that will allow the Office of Commercial Space Launch to begin a new mission that will help to ensure the safety and resilience of the space domain. Outside observers can easily see forward progress toward this, still, undeveloped concept. This paper explores potential final U.S. Space Traffic Management concepts that …

Aviation Law - Insurance - Neither “War Risk” Nor Other Standard Terms Denoting Civil Disturbance Within The Exclusionary Clauses Of All Risks Policies Encompass The Destruction Of An Aircraft By Hijackers, Kathy D. Izell

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Arms Control Provisions In The Outer Space Treaty: A Scrutinizing Reappraisal, Stephen Gorove

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Discussion On The Control And Sale Of Arms, Henry C. Lauerman, Robert E. Clute

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.