The Registration Convention Thirty Years On
- Paper number
IAC-06-E6.3.09
- Author
Prof. Maureen Williams, CONICET and University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Year
2006
- Abstract
The subject is gradually gaining momentum as a result of the growing involvement of private entities and developing countries in space activities. This is particularly so in the field of remote sensing as a good number of these countries have become, nowadays, both "sensed" and "sensing" states. The underlying question may, therefore, be stated as follows: is it advisable to introduce amendments to the text of the 1975 Convention on the Registration of Objects launched into Outer Space? Or, alternatively, should it be kept in its present reading and the gaps covered with some kind of separate international instrument, such as a UNGA Resolution? The political climate in the international arena seems to be indicating the latter course of action. The Registration Convention became effective in 1976 but has not done too well since. It has, indeed, gone downhill in light of the figures provided by a recent Copuos document on Registration Statistics for 1957-2004 . Over the last thirty years, streamlined by impressive technological advances, it appears unrealistic not to include further requirements for the registration of space objects on the international level. In recent times some national administrative regulations, both in industrialised and developing countries, are becoming rather strict on this point. In fact, the position of developing countries, which day by day become further involved in space activities, is that the conditions laid out in Article IV of the 1975 Convention do not meet the necessary requisites to establish the link between damage caused by a space object to persons or property, and the space object involved. This question is surfacing ever more frequently in many fora. It was brought up a few times on the occasion of the UN/Brazil Workshop on Space Law (21-25 November 2004, ST/SPACE/28-OOSA) -where the shortcomings of this Convention were addressed by participants- and further pursued in June 2005 in Cologne during the International Symposium on Project 2001 Plus. Likewise, the Space Law Committee of the International Law Association, in its Report for the 72nd Conference (Toronto 2006), includes an analysis of the matter which shows, in turn, that the links between remote sensing, national space legislation and registration issues get stronger by the day. On the governmental level a special Working Group on the topic began its task in 2005 in the framework of the Legal SubCommittee of Copuos.This work is supplemented by national projects presently underway in industrialised and developing countries. These and other equally topical questions relating, for example, to the somewhat dated requirement of a modest "five-state-ratification" for the entering into force of space treaties will be explored in the present context. Doc.A/AC.105/C.2/2005/CRP.10, 14 April 2005, 44th Session of the LSC.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-06-E6.3.09.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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