Third Report on the Privatisation and Commercialisation of Space Activities

MAUREEN WILLIAMS

Río de Janeiro, Brasil

Congreso; 73 Conference of the International Law Association, Río de Janeiro, agosto 2008; 2008

International Law Association, ISSN 0074-6738

This Report -submitted to the 2008 ILARio Conference- addresses the various chapters of the Committee’s terms of reference, as indicated by its title. It contains some draft proposals as well. Attention is also drawn to the legal aspects of space debris, a matter under permanent review by our Committee since the adoption of the ´ILA International Instrument on the Protection of the Environment from Damage caused by Space Debris´ (66th ILA Conference, Buenos Aires 1994). The topic gained momentum following the Toronto Conference, the most recent outcome being the adoption by the UN General Assembly, on 21 December 2007, of the ´United Nations Guidelines on Space Debris Mitigation´ (UNGA Res. 62/217). The Committee maintains under permanent review the issues underlying dispute settlement related to space activities on the basis of the ILA Revised Draft Convention on the matter adopted at its 68th Conference in 1998. In view of the increasing activity of private entities in outer space this Draft Convention enables these entities to avail themselves of its provisions in cases of dispute (Art. X, paragraph 2). Moreover, and as noted in the Committee´s Report to the Berlin Conference, one of the most welcome consequences of this situation was that dispute settlement procedures were eased as the principle of state immunity became more flexible. Having in mind the scope of the Committee´s current mandate and the many implications involved in each topic the Final Report should be expected for the 74th Conference of the ILA in 2010. The Final Report will be including proposals for future work of this Committee and it is advisable that this Committee begin its consideration in Rio. Given the nature of this Third Report no questionnaire was circulated to members after Toronto. However, over the past two years a great majority of Committee members contributed regularly with their thoughts and ideas to meet the terms of reference for the Rio Conference, keeping in touch with the officers of this Committee. A good number of them -including our general rapporteur, the chair and the session reporter- met with some frequency at various international meetings on these topics. This went a long way in helping the development of our ILA work having in mind the various geographical areas and different legal systems of the world.