Information on the activities of international organisations: the International Law Association

MAUREEN WILLIAMS

Viena

Otro; UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (Copuos) - 44th Session of the Legal Subcommittee; 2005

Naciones Unidas -Subcomisión Jurídica de la Comisión para los Usos Pacíficos del Espacio Ultraterrestre

The task carried out since August 2004, following the Berlin Conference, focused on remote sensing and national space legislation. Drawn from the Report on Remote Sensing and from a further discussion at the working session of the Berlin Conference, it may be found found on the ILA website (www.ila-hq.org) and, in book format, as the Report of the Seventy-First Conference of the ILA (London 2004). The general feeling on the topic is as follows: Given the absence of a political will to develop the 1986 UN Principles on Remote Sensing further, the Space Law Committee agrees on the importance, at this stage, of encouraging bilateral and regional agreements on the subject. On the basis of the Berlin results and having in mind the conclusions on remote sensing and national space legislation, as well as the inter-relation of both these topics with registration issues, the ILA Committee has now become involved in an overview of state practice underlying all three questions. To this end a questionnaire is being circulated to members during December 2004 as a pre-stage to the preparation of the Committee´s Report for the forthcoming Conference in 2006 in Toronto. The problems arising from the use of Earth observation data in international and national litigation, particularly in boundary disputes, will continue to be analysed. Additionally, space debris and dispute settlement, on the basis of the ILA International Instrument on Space Debris and the ILA Draft Convention on the Settlement of Disputes relating to Space Activities, remain under permanent review of this Committee.