Law, College of

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications
Date of this Version
2022
Citation
Chapter in Liber Amicorum Sergio Marchisio: Il diritto della comunità internazionale tra caratteristiche strutturali e tendenze innovative, vol. 2 (Giovanni Ardito et al., eds.), Napoli, Italy: Editoriale Scientifica (2022), pp. 1225–1235.
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Italy in Space
3. International Space Law and the Main Parameters for Private Space Activities
4. National Space Law in Italy as Addressing Private Space Activities
5. Concluding Remarks
Writing a contribution to the Liber Amicorum for someone who counts among the greatest space lawyers of Italy and indeed of the world, as well as being a long-time friend, is obviously a pleasure and an honour—and what other subject would be more suitable than the particular country that has been his birth ground, home, and point of departure for traveling the world to help the cause of space law forward?
So, this small contribution to the celebration of Sergio Marchisio’s career is to focus on Italy, more precisely, on the way it has implemented key elements of international space law. Given the ever-increasing importance of the private sector in outer space and space activities, as well as Professor Marchisio’s role in warning us of the dangers in considering private enterprise to be the solution to all problems in outer space, I will focus furthermore on those elements of international space law that address private sector participation in outer space activities.
Thus, keeping in mind limitations of size, following a brief recitation of Italy’s role so far in humankind’s forays into outer space and followed by some overarching concluding remarks, I will analyse the key elements of the three most important treaties from the current perspective—the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the 1972 Liability Convention, and the 1975 Registration Convention—and the extent to, and manner in, which Italy has actually implemented what is perhaps the most fundamental obligation vis-à-vis private enterprise of all: to “assur[e] that national activities [in outer space carried on by non-governmental entities] are carried out in conformity with the provisions” of international space law and, thus, properly subjected to “authorization and continuing supervision.” The United Nations has already urged its Member States, as appropriate, to enact such national space legislation as the best way to implement those obligations. Thus, “States conducting space activities, in fulfilling their international obligations under the United Nations treaties on outer space, in particular the [Outer Space] Treaty (. . .), the [Liability] Convention (. . .) and the [Registration] Convention (. . .) [should] consider enacting and implementing national laws authorizing and providing for continuing supervision of the activities in outer space of non-governmental entities under their jurisdiction.” More precisely, “[s]pace activities should require authorization by a competent national authority; such authority or authorities, as well as the conditions and procedures for granting, modifying, suspending and revoking the authorization, should be set out clearly within the regulatory framework” and “[t]he conditions for authorization should be consistent with the international obligations of States, in particular under the United Nations treaties on outer space, and with other relevant instruments.”
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