space treaty

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The Outer Space Treaty - official long title: Treaty on the principles governing the activities of states in the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies - was signed on January 27, 1967 on the basis of the United Nations declaration of December 13, 1963 agreed legal principles regarding activities in outer space.

The treaty came into force on October 10, 1967 , for the Federal Republic of Germany on February 10, 1971. As of July 2020, 110 countries have ratified the Outer Space Treaty, including almost all countries currently engaged in space activities .

The treaty was preceded by years of negotiations in the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which, as a standing committee, regulates the legal status of the treaty and the rights of use.

goals of the contract

The aim of the treaty was to prevent the celestial bodies from being occupied by individual states (then the Soviet Union and the USA ; regulated in Article II). Furthermore, no nuclear weapons should be brought into space (Art. IV) and the use of space should only be subject to peaceful purposes; civil space travel and space research are explicitly permitted for every state. Furthermore, no military bases may be installed or military exercises held in space or on the moon. Under the treaty, states are also liable for damage caused by objects they put into space.

effects

  • signed and ratified
  • only signed
    • Type of space use by nation:
  • No usage
  • satellites
  • rocket launch
  • space probes
  • manned spaceflight
  • manned space station
  • manned moon flight
    • (The ones above a period are included.)

    Some passages like Art. XII about stations on celestial bodies still seem extremely futuristic. Liability cases pursuant to Article VII in connection with the Outer Space Liability Convention have also only occurred in isolated cases, such as in the case of the nuclear-powered Soviet satellite Kosmos 954 , which crashed uncontrolled on Canadian territory in 1978.

    In connection with the increasing importance of commercial space travel and private actors, Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty is becoming increasingly important. According to this, the states are also responsible for the private space activities that emanate from their territory. In the United States, there are three agencies that regulate the commercial space sector: the Office of Commercial Space Transportation , which is part of the Department of Transportation , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , and the Federal Communications Commission .

    So far it has been disputed whether it is possible to acquire real estate on celestial bodies. From the point of view of European law, there are two arguments against this: On the one hand, the concept of property is derived from a construction similar to a social contract and cannot be justified by natural law . Basically, there is also a lack of connection to the surface of the earth to justify a plot of land. On the other hand, the lack of sovereignty speaks against it , so that in principle every property could be claimed by everyone without there being any legal protection against it . Claiming a plot of land is therefore arbitrary and not legally binding. There are some private individuals and companies who are of the opinion that the international outer space treaty is only binding on states and in no way on individuals. The prevailing view in international law, on the other hand, is based on an a fortiori binding also for private persons.

    The lack of a distinction between outer space on the one hand and airspace on the other in the Outer Space Treaty was already problematic at the time. This had a particular impact on military use. In particular, the SDI program and the Reagan administration's "Star Wars" scenarios in the 1980s expanded the notion of airspace into regions that would have commonly been assigned to outer space. In the absence of a regulation in the Outer Space Treaty, the projects would probably have been in accordance with international law if they had been implemented.

    In 1992, the fundamental principles were reaffirmed in a UN resolution (A/RES/47/51) The Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) .

    Efforts to prevent an arms race in space have not led to any concrete results, particularly because of the USA's rejection of arms control agreements in space .

    Other contracts

    In addition to the Outer Space Treaty, there are five other well-known international treaties in the field of outer space law:

    See also

    literature

    • Detlev Wolter: Common Security in Outer Space And International Law , 1st edition, United Nations Publications, February 2006, ISBN 92-9045-177-7 – ( UNIDIR ( online ))
    • Wulf von Kries, Bernhard Schmidt-Tedd, Kai-Uwe Schrogl: Fundamentals of Space Law , Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-49742-X
    • Annette Froehlich, et al.: A Fresh View on the Outer Space Treaty. Springer, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-70433-3 .

    web links

    itemizations

    1. ^ a b United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs : Disarmament Treaties Database: Outer Space Treaty. Retrieved 6 July 2020 .
    2. ↑ Monika Köpcke: 50 years of space treaty: Space without wars Deutschlandfunk , January 27, 2017
    3. ↑ Max M. Mutschler: Risks for space use. Challenges and Opportunities for Transatlantic Cooperation SWP Study 2013, p. 12
    4. ↑ Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space fas.org, accessed 29 August 2011
    5. ↑ Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space undocs.org (PDF; 220 kB)
    6. ↑ The Outer Space Treaty and Other Agreements bpb , Arms Control Theme Module, retrieved 30 July 2018
    7. ↑ Detlev Wolter : International legal bases "common security" in space ZaöRV 2002, pp. 941-992