Applying UNCLOS Principles to Outer Space: Guidance from the High Seas Regime
- Paper number
IAC-05-E6.2.04
- Author
Mr. Barry Glaspell, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Canada
- Year
2005
- Abstract
Quite apart from the conventions presently in place, the use and occupation of outer space is subject to duties and immunities determinable, by analogical reasoning, from an analysis of state practice in other areas beyond territorial jurisdiction. In this paper, the author compares the international law applicable to the high seas (under UNCLOS) with the treaties applicable to outer space, and submits that principles well beyond the present space agreements apply, as a matter of customary international law, to preclude at least certain activities in outer space -- without the need for further international conventions. States, as well as legal and natural persons, are subject to limits in the exercise of powers in outer space which parallel limits, both expressly agreed and customary, in respect of the "freedom of the high seas". The author is a graduate of the Univerity of Toronto and Harvard Law School, and has a graduate degree in public international law from the University of Cambridge (Trinity College). The author teaches Private International Law at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and is a practicing lawyer in Toronto, Canada specialising in class action litigation.
- Abstract document