Codification for progressive development of international space law upon active participation of the Russian Federation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu06.2024.406Abstract
The existing universal international treaties regulating space activities of States do not cover the whole system of relations between subjects of space activities. On the other hand, a wide range of “missing” legal norms are sealed in numerous “soft law” documents related to different aspects of space exploration. Thus, the system of legally binding instruments of international space law (hereinafter — ISL) needs to be supplemented, and the existing system of “soft law” norms needs to be more precisely formulated, made free of collisions and systematized. Codification, as renown method of progressive development of international law, is able to solve the task. However, to this day there is no consensus among the leading space powers on the methods and instruments for ISL development. Broad coalition of States is required to reach consensus on a global level. A power with indisputable authority in the field of space exploration shall be the center and “driving force” of the coalition. The Russian Federation, as the first space power, is one of the most likely candidates for this “role”. The following are results of the corresponding study on the problem of ISL development based on universal international treaties, consisting of three main parts. In the first part of the study, the areas of legal uncertainty and lack of legal regulation of space activities are analyzed. Based on the analysis, a classification of current directions of development of legal regulation in the field of space exploration is proposed. In the second part of the study, difficulties in reaching consensus on the most problematic legal aspects of space activities regulation are discussed. In particular, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of performance of the Legal Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) over the past 60 years has been carried out. Features and trends of the subcommittee’s operations in the periods from 1963 to 1996 and from 1996 to 2023 have been identified based on results of the analysis. In addition, a review of the Subcommittee working papers was conducted in order to identify the factors, which hinder consensus of States on key issues of the COPUOS agenda. These factors appeared to be mainly political in nature, and there are no legal barriers to improving the regulatory framework of International Space Law. In the third part of the study, a doctrinal analysis of the methods of legal norms systematization was carried out. Conclusion on objective advantages of codification in comparison with other methods of systematization of Space Law norms was made, and expediency of drafting universal articles on space activities regulation by the UN International Law Commission was emphasized. As a first step, a framework of a universal codifying legal act is proposed.
Keywords:
peaceful use of outer space, international space law, space treaties, odification of international space law, international cooperation in space exploration
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