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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 2346.PDF
FLIGHT International, 11 October 1962 613 Progress in Space-Law: the Fifth Colloquium By a Special Correspondent ZLATNI PYASSATSI (Golden Sands), a new seaside resort ten miles from Vama on the Black Sea, will be renowned as the scene of the first full-scale participation by leading Soviet space lawyers at an international non-governmental meeting devoted to problems of space law. The occasion was the fifth Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space organized by the Inter national Institute of Space Law and held on September 25-26, concurrently with the 13th IAF congress. Predictably, there could be few apparent changes in the public viewpoints expressed by the US and the Soviet participants, but below the surface and in private discussion it was clear that, following the United Nations resolution of December 20, 1961 (Flight International, January 4, 1962), there are no basic legal differences in approach. If politics permit, the way is clear for the evolution of detailed rules on comparatively non-political topics such as liability for damage caused by space vehicles and spacemen (but possibly not space activities generally), assistance to spacemen in distress, the allocation of radio frequencies and the registration of space vehicles and their launches—all of which will need to be expressed finally in international conventions for acceptance by all nations. Officially these tasks will fall in the first place to the legal sub committee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space but, naturally, progress in that forum may depend on political progress elsewhere—principally on disarmament and the cold war generally. Many speakers still seem to be obsessed with the idea that space offers possibilities of peace which are not to be found on Earth. There is no reason to suppose that men or nations will behave better or worse in space than they do on Earth. One does not need to be a cynic to realize that nations which have so far not discovered how to co-operate—say on the subject of agriculture or famine relief, or to trade freely with one another—are not inherently more likely to achieve greater success in co-operation in such a prestigious and militarily significant arena as space. So far, however, there are only two major powers involved in the space race, and in an exchange of letters earlier this year President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev indicated their mutual willingness to co-operate on the peaceful uses of outer space. Lawyers have a modest part to play in fulfilling these hopes. International non-governmental bodies such as the International Law Association (which has just formed a space law committee) and the IILS therefore have an important part to play in assisting the UN legal subcommittee—if they can provide an apparatus to thrash out the legal problems involved without any necessary commitment to political or national attitudes. Political influences will be at work all the time, no matter how much this may distress dedicated scholars or legal purists, and no lawyer or scientist can afford to be unaware of this. Nevertheless the identification of legal problems and proposals for their solution can in theory be carried out more swiftly and accurately and at a lower temperature in a well-organized non-governmental organization. On its present showing, the International Institute of Space Law is not such an organization, but it has a priceless opportunity to reform itself into a valuable adjunct to the work of United Nations. The new president is Mr Assen Georgiaev of Bulgaria, who has had a distinguished career in law and in representing his government overseas. In particular, he has been a Bulgarian delegate to six United Nations sessions, including the historic sixteenth session which produced the outer-space resolution of last December 20, and has already served on the legal subcommittee of the UN outer-space committee. He now heads a ten-man board of directors of the Institute which includes lawyers from Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, India, Mexico, Poland, Britain and the USA and which is awaiting the nomination of someone from the Soviet Union. Despite chaotic organization and an almost total absence of useful discussion, the Varna colloquium will not have been a failure if, with the new IISL president and board of directors, it proves to have been the foundation-stone of a new collaboration between east and west. Dr Pepin, professor of space law in Paris, made important suggestions to improve the work of the Institute, after Mr Caplan of the United Kingdom had made a number of similar points the previous day. Points from the Papers General Principles of International Law in Outer Space by M. G. MARKOV Because the UN Resolution 1721 (XVI) states that "international law, including the UN charter, extends to outer space and celestial bodies" it is important to see what are the principles which will be applicable. Space is therefore not a legal vacuum. For example, it could be said that those current practices of the USA and the USSR which are not the subject of protest by any State are tacitly creating a body of customary international law. On the other hand, "everything that is not expressly prohibited is permitted" and the UN Charter prohibits "breaches of the peace." Hence activities such as spy satellites and the launching of the 350m West Ford needles cannot be supported. Reliance upon International Custom and General Principles in the Growth of Space Law by M. S. JAFFE Lawyers must not take too much upon themselves or imagine that they are the only ones to protect society's values. The absence of any agreement on the definition of outer space has not prevented general agreement that all the manned orbital vehicles operated in space, and neither the US nor the USSR sought permission for these activities—thus tending to establish the rule that outer space and the celestial bodies are free for use by all States. The UN resolution simply restated what experience and practice had taught. The attempt to solve hypothetical legal problems in space before they arise, relying on incomplete and inadequate knowledge, can only tend to promote confusion and conflict. United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space by E. GALLOWAY Mrs Galloway describes the formation and work of the Committee and the creation of two sub-committees, one "scientific and tech nical" and one "legal." The USA reports data to UN on the fifteenth and last days in each month concerning (1) space vehicles launched into sustained orbit or beyond; (2) space vehicles which achieved orbit but did not maintain orbit during the time period covered by the report and (3) space vehicles which did not achieve orbit. As of August 15, 1962, the US registered a total of 115 space vehicles and associated objects and as of June 30, 1962, the Soviet Union registered a total of 21, but do not include unsuccessful attempts. Although the legal subcommittee had many meetings it was unable to reach agreement on a report, principally due to prevailing political influences. However, many problems were re-identified— such as liability for space-vehicle accidents; assistance to and return of space vehicles and personnel suffering from accident or distress; the allocation of radio frequencies; prevention of contamination of outer space; celestial bodies and the Earth, etc. Meanwhile scien tific and technical progress on exploring and using outer space for peaceful purposes will go on. The Magna Carta of Space by w. A. HYMAN Vehicles orbit the Earth whilst the law stays in the horse-and- buggy era. In the absence of true Space Law, who will control the educational and cultural standards of material transmitted by satellite communication systems ? How can the mad race to death by high nuclear explosions be prevented? What is to prevent some one misusing weather control if this ever becomes possible? Using such guide lines of the past as the Ten Commandments, Magna Carta, the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, the answer is for all nations to accept a declaration of principles to be called a Magna Carta of Space. This would include a division between airspace and outer space; re-statement of the UN resolution principles; estab lishment of a neutral zone between airspace and outer space in which there would be a right of innocent passage; the policing of outer space; and "War, in, by or through space is hereby banned
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