WHAT LEVEL OF DETAIL IN NATIONAL SPACE LEGISLATION IS IDEAL FOR THE HARMONIZATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF SUCH LEGISLATION AND INTERNATIONAL SPACE LAW?

摘要

Harmonization of national space legislation can have many benefits but can be difficult to achieve given competing priorities and different legal systems. The aspect of harmonization that this paper explores is the level of detail in national space legislation regarding compliance with international space law, importantly including the Outer Space Treaty (OST). While most national space legislation contains a general obligation on commercial entities to comply with international space law, i.e. a low-level or minimalistic harmonization, different wording and different scenarios can make such harmonization illusory without any transparency benefits to private parties and without advancing a coalescence of views around OST obligations. More detail in national space legislation regarding what the OST requires can assist in achieving more coalescence of views beyond reliance alone on diplomacy within the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and in other forms. This is true even when the detail included is on a point of significant disagreement among nations as to what the OST allows or requires as fault lines of disagreement can be made more transparent but competitive pressures can nevertheless push forward consensus. Recent legislation gives some indication that further detail of OST obligations in national space legislation may be trending upward. This is a positive development, and as the level of detail in broadly-agreed interpretations of the OST (gradually) grows, national legislation can be updated or corresponding national regulations can lay out those further details in a two-way, push-pull fashion.