The Future of Space Law and Governance: Cooperation in an Age of Competition

Humanity is moving from exploring space to living and working there. Commercial operators are deploying unprecedented numbers of satellites, governments are treating space as an increasingly important strategic domain and governmental and private missions are preparing to return to the Moon. Yet the international legal framework governing these activities remains rooted largely in treaties negotiated more than fifty years ago. Those treaties establish enduring principles, but offer few operational rules for managing an increasingly crowded, competitive and commercially valuable environment.

This workshop will highlight some of the most pressing challenges facing space law and governance. It will examine the urgent need for space traffic coordination and effective responses to the growing population of orbital debris. It will consider how China and other nations are using law, diplomatic narratives, technical standards and incremental practice as instruments of strategic advantage. Looking to the Moon, the workshop will explore emerging tensions surrounding access, resource activity, safety zones, scientific interests and the risk that first movers may shape the rules for everyone who follows.

The discussion will also return to Earth. Spaceports can attract investment, create jobs and give communities a direct role in the expanding space economy. They may also impose environmental costs through construction, noise, emissions, habitat disruption and increased launch and reentry activity. The desire to accelerate access to space must therefore be balanced against environmental protection, meaningful public participation and the interests of the communities asked to host the necessary infrastructure.

Governments cannot resolve these questions alone. The workshop will consider the roles of the public, non-governmental organizations, universities, commercial operators and national and subnational governments in developing norms, demanding transparency, building expertise and ensuring that space remains safe, sustainable and accessible.

Space is a shared domain and its exploration and use are the province of all humankind. Nevertheless, a race is underway: a race for markets, resources, strategic position and influence over the rules themselves. Even as we race to determine the future of space, the workshop will ask what we can learn from the past, what we owe to it and how our shared history can help guide what comes next.

Michelle L.D. Hanlon, Esq., Aviation and Space Law