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Space exploration and utilization is a rapidly expanding sector, and there is growing consensus that the complex space governance system must evolve with it. Faced with this dynamic nature, we present a clear framework for conceptualizing the space governance system as a tool for discussions on space law and policy, demystifying its structure and the actors, instruments, and collaborations within it. We then consider key debates in the space policy field within this framework. We define four components of the space governance system: international space law, international agreements and policies, national laws and policies, and stakeholder inter-relations and standards. We visualize these components as concentric circles from the inside out. We consider the growing impact stakeholders such as private companies have on the space governance system and how that shapes people's mindsets about space. We then discuss five core debates in modern space policy: mega-constellations vs. maintaining a pristine night sky, entertainment vs. practicality, data sharing vs. privacy, common heritage of humankind vs. province of humankind, protection of the space environment vs. expansion. There is an evolution happening in the space regime, requiring us to adapt our understanding of the space governance system to one that is open textured. We must demystify its structure so it is more clearly understood, resulting in an interpretation that enables us to work towards a modernized system that maintains core principles of peace, cooperation, sustainability, and protection of the space environment. • We discuss five debates in space policy and opposing perspectives. • Debate summaries inform educated policy and legal debate. • We deconstruct the space governance system into its components. • We propose a view of space as an environment rather than a domain to be exploited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing realization on the part of lawmakers, policy experts and practitioners that cyber risks and threat vectors constitute a critical and strategic challenge for all outer space operations. Stakeholders' professional attention and resources are beginning to focus on measures for mitigating these risks and threats. Space-based activities depend on the reliable functionality of computer systems and the wireless communications connecting them through use of the electromagnetic spectrum resource – all of which constitute parts of the infrastructure of cyberspace both on Earth and in space. Thus, cyber risks and vulnerabilities arise in all aspects of outer space operations: satellite launches and their orbital telemetry, tracking, and control (TTC); operational communications (space-to-space, earth-to-space and space-to-earth); and other spectrum-dependent space transmissions. Additional cyber vulnerabilities are present in the terrestrial systems supporting space operations, including launch systems and supply chains for dedicated equipment and services. The mitigation of such cyber threats and vulnerabilities in the more traditional terrestrial context is a rapidly developing area of law and policy aiming to counter the activities of malicious cyber actors whether they are criminals, States or hostile ideological groups. On the one hand, the threat mitigation aspects of cybersecurity have by no means been resolved, as hostile actors use increasingly sophisticated means to achieve their ends. On the other, progress has been made with respect to measures and best practices recognized as critical to boosting cybersecurity for space activities. This article focuses on one of these: information sharing (IS) among trusted participants in a secure platform designed for sharing actionable cybersecurity data. The primary goal of such sharing is to reduce the informational asymmetry between the attacker and the target, whether the latter is a State, private company, or other entity. Cyber attackers leverage their knowledge of the target's vulnerabilities, and only need to be right on one occasion to cause operational, financial, and/or reputational damage that may impair the long-term functionality of the targeted entity. Yet when a group of potential targets can reliably share data on cyber risks and measures to counter them, the informational asymmetry is reduced, and cybersecurity improved. Several conditions exist for optimizing IS which provides actionable information, and for ensuring that trust is developed and maintained among IS participants. Finally, in the context of outer space-related cybersecurity threats, the paper argues that IS proves critical because of two elements: the aggravated asymmetry of cyber threat vectors in outer space, and their distinctive space-related characteristics. • There is a growing realization that cyber risks and threat vectors constitute a critical and strategic challenge for all outer space operations. • Stakeholders' professional attention and resources are focusing on measures for mitigating these risks and threats. • Space-based activities depend on the reliability of computer systems and their wireless connection, – which constitute the infrastructure of cyberspaceon Earth and in space. • Cyber risks and vulnerabilities arise in all aspects of outer space operations, andadditional. • Cyber vulnerabilities are present in the terrestrial systems supporting them. • Several conditions exist for optimizing IS which is actionable, and for ensuring that trust is maintained among IS participants. • Several conditions exist for optimizing IS which is actionable, and for ensuring that trust is maintained among IS participants. • Information sharing for outer space cybersecurity is critical because of the aggravated asymmetry of cyber threat vectors in space and their distinctive space-related characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With commercial participants now undertaking an ever-expanding role within the development and supply-chains of China's space industry post Document No. 60, the resulting legal challenges relating to this emerging industry status-quo has garnered much academic discussion. Specifically, while China's space industry has grown at a rapid pace within the past few decades, China's legislative framework has remained largely silent over matters relating to space. Instead, China continues to remain as the only major space-faring nation without a national space law and regime. This substantive legislative gap over China's space related activities has negatively impacted the industry's current deregulation process. While it has been the academic community's primary solution to address the industry's current substantive legislative gap through coordinated rulemaking activities, this paper aims to advance the current academic discussion by taking an alternative approach and arguing that the fundamental legislative challenge and solution to China's emerging commercial space industry, is not substantive, but rather procedural by nature. Importantly, by reconceptualizing the industry's substantive gap from one that is determined by the number of missing legal instruments, to one determined by the rate of legislative activity i.e., the pace of law-making activities vis-à-vis commercial expansion, this paper argues that only through the implementation of legal procedural rulemaking mechanisms will China's space law regime be able to sufficiently address the current substantive legislative gap at a pace matching commercial expansion. • The deregulation of China's space industry. • Regulatory structure and legal challenges of China's space industry. • A procedural argument to resolve China's substantive space law gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of mega-constellations of artificial satellites is creating a new paradigm that requires the reconceptualization of the term security, displacing anthropocentric definitions in favor of a greater vision of planetary security. This emerging situation compels us to reflect on the risks and dangers arising from the interference of satellites and space debris with the protective role of States, as well as the formulation of effective threat management strategies. The global dimension of this problem, together with the majority presence of the private sector, forces a revision of the regulatory framework for outer space in order to anticipate and respond to the foreseeable saturation of low-Earth orbits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space law education has an essential role in the space capacity building of a country because of its importance for human resources development in space law. Comparisons between Canada and China, the European Union and China and the United States of America (USA) and China in space law degree education, course, teaching methodology, institute and practice and communication platform are provided in an attempt to review some issues which exist within the Chinese space law educational system and to seek a better choice for China's space law education reform. Chinese space law education has achieved noticeable progress over the past two decades. However, it is still limited in comparison to its counterparts in Europe and Northern America. The range of the space law degree education programmes and space-law-related courses is comparatively limited. A gap remains between space law education and practice in China. Chinese space law classes are still dominated by the teacher-centred teaching methodology, although several universities have some new teaching practices. The establishment of seven space law-related research institutes plays an increasingly important role in Chinese space law education, space law and policy research and legal advisory services for the Chinese government and non-governmental sectors. However, these institutes still have a long way to go in comparison with their counterparts in Europe and Northern America. While China has established domestic research platforms for space law communication through international cooperation, it does not provide space law practice platforms for space law education. While international space law does not provide a direct legal foundation for space law education in China, Chinese educational laws can lay a profound legal foundation for Chinese space law education. To promote its national expertise and capacity in space law, based on the three-pillar model and the experiences of its counterparts in North America and Europe, China should adopt a systematic and sustainable regime for its space law education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing the medium of science fiction as a tool for both entertainment and serious inquiry, this paper utilizes a high-altitude overview of 17th and 18th century English colonial history as a case study to contemplate the potential future development of space law by a small extraplanetary community faced with the possibility of extinction. The analysis will follow a three-chapter structure, aiming to explore potential futures by considering the past, in hopes that future human expansion beyond the Earth succeeds without repeating those transgressions perpetrated by European, English and--eventually--American imperialism. The first chapter will examine the legal history of self-subsistent English colonies in North America and Australia, observing how these fledgling societies created new legal regimes by incorporating both their European legal heritage and novel concepts of law influenced by a new (to them) and uniquely challenging environment. Chapter Two will then present informed observations--based on certain historical precedents set by previous colonial societies--as to how a newly created Martian settlement might adapt its 21st-century legal heritage to accommodate the needs of a community on the edge of oblivion, anticipating that such a community will likely reshape its inherited legal framework in the interest of its long-term survival. Finally, Chapter Three will analyze how a fragile planetary settlement might defend its potentially novel (and likely controversial) actions under general international law, with special consideration for its potential exercise of self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity's importance in addressing legal problems is clearly apparent from the resolution of the Cold War's significant geopolitical tensions through space exploration. This paper will consider the importance of creativity as a means of addressing legal lacunae within space law, since the relative youth of space exploration and its accelerating technological progress means that traditional legal and regulatory solutions are not always appropriate. Spaceflight participants may encounter various situations that general human experience and law provides little guidance for. The initial creativity within the legal and regulatory aspects of space activity that saw the signing of major international treaties has since been stifled in favour of relying upon the established legal order. Increasingly awkward legal contortionism is occurring because of strict adherence to historical agreements. Furthermore, precedents of wider international law are also ill-fitting options because they were never intended to apply to such instances. This lack of viable solutions has generated legal lacunae. Increased diversity of actors and activity within the space industry means that employing such measures does not reflect modern space exploration's reality and as explorative efforts move further away from Earth, attempts to apply law and policy written in different geopolitical climates becomes increasingly strained. This article will highlight these key issues, advocating that creativity be considered more directly by the law to help advance society in a way that enables these lacunae to be traversed. This discussion will advocate creative fusion of both binding and non-binding agreements to try and break the deadlock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the actual problems of ensuring the Global Security of the World and Ukraine. The results of studying the experience of the Geneva Center for Security Policy and the legal provision of security are presented. The article presents the results of the Ukrainian experience of participating in the mission of the Geneva Center for Security Policy in terms of ensuring Space Security. The problem of Asteroid Hazard is singled out, and the possibility of its elimination using the Science & Space LLC launch vehicle as a carrier of kinetic weapons is described. The legal basis for the use of weapons in outer space and the inevitability of liability for their use are considered - even in the kinetic missile version, which is not a weapon of mass destruction. The world experience in the topic of Global and Space Security under study is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into the imperativeness of addressing space threats and safeguarding global space security, elucidating actionable measures to mitigate risks and safeguard the interests of humanity. The paper explores the evolving landscape of space threats, including the increase in space activities, the accumulation of space debris, challenges in space traffic management, and the preservation of dark skies. It highlights the need for enhanced space law to serve as an effective legal instrument and examines the interpretation of "peaceful" in the context of space activities. The role of space security and its interplay with global security is also discussed, emphasizing the protection of assets, activities, and interests in space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space is becoming the next frontier for human conflict and competition. The United States, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and the Russian Federation (RF) have all invested deeply in a modern space race to gain or maintain strategic superiority, with plans for lunar bases, celestial resource exploitation, and the colonization of Mars. With technological advancements and a weak regulatory framework governing space operations, the development of spacebased and counterspace military assets, advanced space weaponry, space transportation and space resource exploitation operations are an inherent part of mankind's future. This article assumes the inevitability of space exploration--including celestial body resource exploitation, weapon research and developments, and the human colonization of Mars--to show the importance of American leadership of human expansion into space. Power in space will be drawn from technological developments, including new types of weaponry and energy production. The author explores the technologies available in today's space race environment, including potential future energy resources available in space, weapon systems designed for space and counterspace warfare, the legal implications of each, and some potential consequences of different nations gaining the upper hand in the heavens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examine the legal issues associated with mega-constellations of small satellites in low-earth orbit (MegaLEOs). Topics discussed include the history of space law, the solutions to the legal challenges caused by the proliferation of MegaLEOs, the legal implications of states' ability to censor Internet from MegaLEOs, and the legal implications of the threat of collisions of low-earth orbit as a result of the proliferation of MegaLEOs.

Today, one of the main concerns of the Committee for the Peaceful Use of Outer Space (COPUOS) and its subcommittees is the issue of militarization in space law. Top space countries such as the United States, Russia and China have added to this concern by using advanced space military equipment. Therefore, the international community must look for desirable and practical solutions to solve this problem in order to prevent militarization and the creation of an arms race in space. Based on this, the present article tries to investigate the military prohibitions governing space activities in order to prohibit such activities in outer space by analyzing the military use of space and legal documents and explaining the conventional and customary system governing space treaties and by examining some dual-use space-based weapons; Conduct a descriptive analysis and reveal more about the negative aspects of the military use of space.

Commercialization of space is happening much faster than expected. However, in space law, due to the share of the five treaties at the time of their conclusion and ratification, less attention has been paid to the commercial dimensions of space, so the logic of international relations requires that space regulations be developed in proportion to this growing trend. The non-conformity of regulations with the development of business activities poses challenges to the international community in adopting binding laws, which has led countries to regulate this area to meet the needs of domestic business actors. The development of commercial uses of space such as space tourism, space transportation, natural resource exploitation, the need for rules, updating and transparency of regulations, especially in areas such as property ownership (both real and intellectual), financing of space assets, and space mining is essential. The present article, while enumerating the basic needs and strategies in this field along with soft laws and the actions of various space law actors as one of the practical ways of regulating space activities, explains the existing regulations such as the space protocol to the Cape Town Convention on investment in the space industry.

Focuses on the concept of Space Traffic Management (STM), the matter which has been of high interest for many space actors in the last three decades. With the emergence of the NewSpace era, and flourishment of commercial and economic incentives for space activities, this topic has gained the attention of many space actors in the preceding decades, thus turning into a separate agenda item in the Legal Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. However, establishing and implementing such regulations is a challenging task, especially for new space actors. This article aims to assess the existing challenges of STM and provide solutions to overcome them. Firstly, this article provides the necessity of establishing such a regulation: it is evaluated and discussed while describing the requirements for achieving this goal. Secondly, the paper studies definitions provided by governmental and non-governmental entities regarding this concept and the measures taken towards its realising. Finally, the research discusses the challenges that space actors face regarding implementing this concept, both legal and practical. In conclusion, the authors highlight the importance of promoting endeavours and coordination among all current and potential space actors with due considerations for their relevancy.

We are witnessing a new space race. A half century after the last Moon landing, and after a decade during which the United States could not launch its own astronauts to Earth orbit, there is new energy in the space activity. China has huge ambitions to rival or eclipse America as the major space power, and other countries are developing space programs. However, perhaps the greatest excitement attaches to the entrepreneurs who are trying to create a new business model for space travel based initially on tourism, and eventually, on colonizing the Moon and Mars and harvesting resources from asteroids. This paper presents a snapshot of the new space race and the rich men behind it, and it looks at some of the ethical and legal issues raised by this activity. The methodology is to consider the stated ambitions of the men leading private space companies, compare and contrast the space endeavor with earlier episodes of exploration and transportation innovation, review the regulatory environment for outer space, and consider two divergent scenarios for the future. Opinions are divided on whether commercial space flight is an expensive indulgence or potentially a way to find sustainability solutions for our life on Earth. It is concluded that the new space race can be characterized as unbounded: in ambition, in terms of laws and regulations, and in terms of ethical constraints on the activity.

This article traces the imperial roots of the contemporary asylum–welfare nexus. It explores how English colonial governance exported Poor Law legislation firstly to colonial America (USA) and secondly to British North America (Canada). It argues that these three countries are an Anglophone shared moral space of law and governance, revealing the common unresolved contradictions underpinning contemporary debates about who 'deserves' entry, under what conditions, and why. Historical perspectives unsettle assumptions about the primacy of national geopolitical borders and the exceptionalism of contemporary migration. This article uses historical sociology to trace why and how national sovereignty took primacy over municipalities in controlling the mobility of people and the concomitant moral underpinnings. It then draws on new empirical research in three pioneering 'sanctuary cities' to explore how cities contest the entwining of welfare and migration governance. However, the article explores how these initiatives often reproduce justifications based on 'deservingness' and 'contribution'. Through tracing the common threads that led to these forms of governance, we can understand they are not self-evident. A historical perspective allows us to ask different questions and open realms of alternative possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have successfully launched paying customers into space, forging the future of the space tourism industry. While a growing space tourism industry promotes scientific advancement and opens an activity once reserved for trained astronauts to the public, the industry generates new issues and reveals the vulnerabilities of international space law. This Note explores the history of commercial spaceflight and the international agreements that comprise the current legal regime. It argues that space tourism presents a need for a new international agreement to address three vulnerabilities in the current international regime: environmental protections, protections for space tourists, and regulations for commercial spaceflight companies. This Note draws on the examples of the Antarctic Treaty System, the Treaty for Amazonian Cooperation, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to show how this new international agreement can successfully balance promoting the growth of commercial spaceflight while ensuring the environment and passengers are adequately protected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space operations such as space domain awareness and space control can no longer be confined to that which is found in geosynchronous orbit. International activities--commercial and military--and threats to the planet itself exist or are increasing across the entire Earth-Moon system. This reality requires a new Earth-Moon system (EM-Sys) taxonomy to accurately classify missions such as space domain awareness and better apply resources to and development of the same. This work presents such a taxonomy for the classification of space extending from near-Earth orbit to beyond the Earth sphere of influence. The article discusses space law considerations of Earth-Moon system operations with respect to the patentability and property rights of orbits and trajectories that may provide economic and/or space control advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lawn Dart program, a proliferated mesh network of security commodities staged across the lunar surface, will promote a stable and sustainable space operating environment. Lawn Darts will deploy as probes from lunar orbit around the surface of the Moon to provide an Internet of Things and a power network for other operational assets such as rovers, people, and Moon bases. This capability and its execution raises questions about international law and geopolitical concerns related to territorial claims on the lunar surface and the planned organization of space activities by conflicting parties, but the program is compliant with the current framework of law and policy. The Lawn Dart program is essential for providing security for lunar assets, protecting mission data against adversaries, and laying the groundwork for NASA and European Space Agency exploration mission success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American policymakers are grappling with ensuring the ability of the US Space Force to project power in space while avoiding either explicitly militarizing space beyond geostationary orbit or by implying the establishment of sovereignty over celestial objects, actions which have the potential to alienate Allies and partners and alarm adversaries. An international civilian-led logistics architecture provides policymakers, military leaders, and proponents of civil exploration an opportunity to cooperatively pool their resources and achieve their objectives. An international civil and military partnership can be used to create shared standards, interfaces, and interoperability procedures to achieve strategic modularity, a fundamental requirement of a sustainment architecture and a paradigm leveraged by the petroleum industry but nearly absent from spacecraft systems engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last several years, governments have expressed increasing concerns over foreign satellites making close approaches, known as rendezvous and proximity operations (RPOs), to sensitive national security satellites. These activities have primarily occurred in the geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) region where sensitive satellites performing missile warning, secure communications, and intelligence collection missions are located. Rendezvous and proximity operations with another nation's satellite could exacerbate current geopolitical tensions or lead to unwanted escalation. This article provides an overview of the fundamentals of RPOs and other satellite maneuvers in the GEO region. It suggests a taxonomy for categorizing different kinds of RPOs and analyzes four policy options for dealing with them: improved space situational awareness, pattern-of-life information sharing, keep-out zones, and guardian satellites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NATO's Overarching Space Policy model for international collaboration in space sets a unique security framework in the organization's approach to interoperability, defense planning, and deterrence. The policy represents the singular voice of 30 NATO Allies, and its public release was a significant step toward establishing international norms of space behavior. While not a norm-setting organization like the UN, NATO is positioned to be the center of gravity for evolving standards and improving space security for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Mankind often seeks solutions to climate change and environmental crises, but rarely considers the feasibility of outer space to overcome such critical issues. Among many solar geoengineering approaches is stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) whose concept suggests artificial control of the global temperature by spreading tones of sulfur dioxide into Earth’s stratosphere. Given that the classic ‘technology control dilemma’ represents the central problem of solar geoengineering governance, however, this paper adopts a VenusEarth comparative planetology method by addressing volcanology and atmospheric circulation aspects. An international regulatory framework engaging space law in solar geoengineering governance is consequently presented, which classifies two separate legislations: (1) research-based legislation (comparative planetology and Earth science) and (2) non-research-based legislation (national and international governance, ethical issues, economic factors, military utilization). Further highlighting climate change issues, SAI manifests the Anthropocene and regards Earth’s stratosphere as an “inner environment”, while comparative planetology manifests the Anthropocosmos and regards space as an “outer environment”. This polymorphous consideration of atmospheric and space elements identifies a new approach of climate change techniques. Human relations that concern both environments should examine how social scientists would regard these separate boundaries or perceive them as a mergence between the two major epochs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exploration and exploitation of space has attracted the attention of many States, as well as of private stakeholders. In the past couple of years, they have poured drastically increasing amounts of resources, financial and otherwise, into space-related activities. Despite the rapid economic and technological developments, however, the legal framework around space-related activities, including dispute settlement, has largely remained the same as the one first established in the 1960's. The question thus arises whether such a framework can harbor the increasing demand of spacerelated disputes, and if not, what changes could be made, particularly in international arbitration, to address the specificities and complexities of this fast-growing field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international legal regulation of outer space was founded on an assumption that space was (at that time) a new frontier that would enable a far broader range of activities on Earth and in space itself. This has raised important issues both as to the significance of fundamental human rights for space activities, as well as corporate accountability for conduct in outer space that may impact upon human rights. This is particularly so given the increasing involvement of the private sector in space activities. However, there has been relatively little detailed analysis to date of the interaction and intersection between the specific international legal regime of outer space and the international legal regulation of human rights. In that context, this Article undertakes two tasks. First, it establishes why the exploration and use of outer space should be increasingly considered from a human rights perspective. Second, it considers what issues arise in the context of corporate accountability for conduct in outer space affecting human rights. Ultimately, we support calls for a specific and specialised body with jurisdiction to adjudicate conduct by private actors in outer space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce here a new critical judgments project: the Anthropocene Judgments project. The project is intended to be an interdisciplinary, collaborative, visionary initiative, a collective effort on the part of legal scholars, writers of speculative fiction, literary scholars and climate scientists to anticipate what may lie ahead. Participants will engage in futuristic modelling and write judgments of, and for, the future – constructing innovative pathways of legal reasoning to address the novel, socio-legal and environmental challenges of the Anthropocene. In this article, we develop our ideas for the project, canvass possible directions for future judgment writing and explain the importance of this ambitious endeavour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]