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TEACHING SPACE LAW IN LAW SCHOOLS, A NECESSARY CHALLENGE IN THE

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 IAC-12,E1,3,6,x14714

TEACHING SPACE LAW IN LAW SCHOOLS, A NECESSARY CHALLENGE IN THE DEVELOPING

COUNTRIES

Camilo Guzman Gomez

Sergio Arboleda University, Colombia,
camilo.guzman@usa.edu.co

Teaching space law usually lags behind in the various educational institutions, either in law school or technical or
scientific institutes. However, experience shows that this teaching undergraduate and postgraduate allows the creation
of elites that can accompany a country's technical development and implementation of public policy space.
Technological developments have legal consequences and without a serious analysis of these, technological advances
can be stopped or lost. In the developing countries, education in space law is not a priority, since technical aspects are
privileged. But there are many examples of countries that show that the absence of Space law specialists has brought
dire consequences. In Colombia, for example, lack of knowledge and prepared elite delayed and perhaps put an end to
the planned acquisition of satellite telecommunications. The problem to be solved is to know if this failure is prejudicial
and how it could be repaired. This study seeks to establish the importance of education in space law in developing
countries either in graduate or undergraduate programs.

I. INTRODUCTION and easy access to outer space technology* is a source

Teaching space law is utterly important and most
countries understand this need, even in developing
countries, for the United Nations and its Committee on
the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) it is a
priority.
Nevertheless, the teaching of space law is generally
considered a matter of less concern and tends to be
overlooked in developing countries. When, in fact, in
many countries the development of outer space activity
of potential disagreements and legal conflict.
The lack of capable jurists to deal with these issues,
or better, to prevent them, may be a bigger obstacle to
the development of outer space projects in countries
with scarce capital. Law schools, in most developing
countries, have failed to see the need, and the
advantages, of teaching space law, instead, deeming it
as superfluous or unnecessary.
*
cf. Increasing CubeSat projects in developing countries

IAC-12,E1,3,6,x14714

1
 The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the
importance of teaching space law and progress in
developing countries. This paper is not a thorough
assessment of all the different space law subjects of
study*,nor its actual progress in developing countries, it
is a theoretical analysis on the teaching of space law in
order to draw general recommendations.
II. THE NECESSARY GENERALIZATION OF
TEACHING SPACE LAW IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES
Although it might seem like teaching space law is
unimportant, experience demonstrates that the
development of technical and scientific capacities must
grow in parallel with the learning of space law, just as
much as the twined concept of R&D (Research and
Development) is valid in the field of Economics.
Actually, the implementation of technical capacities
at the launching of spatial public policy in developing
countries can carry along legal mishaps. Having no
knowledge or reflection on space law and space policy
*
Many articles or directories exist on this particular topic.
The OOSA education directory,
http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/SpaceLaw/educationdirectory/in
dex.html; Marchisio S., Networking and federatives
initiatives, IISL-ECSL symposium on capacity building in
space law, Vienna, 2007,
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/lsc2007/symp-03-
1E.pdf; Schneeberger J.A., Capacity Building in Space Law,
AFRICAN SKIES/CIEUX AFRICAINS, No. 12, October
2008,
http://www.saao.ac.za/~wgssa/archive/as12/schneeberger.pdf
; Monserrat Filho, J., The need for teaching institutions in
LAtin American and Carribean region: specific features and
initiatives, IISL-ECSL symposium on capacity building in
space law, Vienna, 2007
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/lsc2007/symp-04-
1E.pdf; Gal G., Study and teaching of space law, in Space
law, development and scope, Nandasiri Jasentuliyana
(Editor); Tuinde P.H, Masson-Zwaan T., Space law training
and education, in Outlook on Space Law Over the Next 30
Years: Essays Published for the 30th anniversary of the Outer
Space treaty, Kluwer Law international, 1997, among others.
IAC-12,E1,3,6,x14714
means taking a big risk of failure, delay or increased
costs in these processes.
Take for instance, two textbook cases of a
developing country, with no specific national space
laws and where no United Nations (UN) treaties on
space has yet been signed†, with the claim that these
examples can be extrapolated to other countries and
other realities. The first case, that has been mentioned
earlier, refers to a State initiative ‡. As part of a policy
of improvement and wider access to
telecommunications and the Internet, the State decides
to buy a telecommunications satellite. The Ministry of
Telecommunications undertakes the process of
acquisition by the means of the State Procurement Act.
The process could not be completed since the State was
unaware of the space laws on the matter of insurance
and the legal framework of spatial contracts; also it had
not signed any of the UN treaties on space law. The
bidding companies could not take the risks the State
wanted to impose. Hence, the absence of space law and
of a specific law on space activities prevented the
purchase of the satellite and the State lost the
opportunities of accessing better technology, of
implementing spatial spin-offs and the capacity
building of staff and scientists. Unfortunately, being a
developing country, with a very limited budget, the
money was reassigned to a different project and the
satellite project was abandoned.
The second case refers to a private initiative. A
University of that same State decides to build and
launch a CubeSat without any legal support. In order to
build such satellite, you must import certain
§
components, run tests on the satellite, export for
launching and outsource the service of launching. Each
stage of the way could encounter legal problems. In the
first stage, two problems could arise, regarding the
violation of export regulations from the country selling
*
The two examples are taken from Colombia, but they can
easily be extrapolated to other developing countries.
‡Guzman Gomez C., Space procurement regulation: the
colombian procurement act of 2010, 54TH IISL
COLLOQUIUM ON THE LAW OF OUTER SPACE, IAC-
11,E7,2,3,x12098, 2011
2
certain implements (eg. violating the International
Traffic in Arms Regulations ITAR) and regarding the
violation of the buying country's own import rules or
finding legal loopholes that prevent and delay the
import (for example, when the customs office cannot
put a category on these parts). In the other stages, there
may be problems of contracting spatial services, on
insurance, on exports (for instance, where there is no
satellite category, it could be considered a weapon or
could not be allowed to be exported). Lastly, there
might be problems regarding the responsibility and
registration of the satellite. The amount of funding, the
degree of feasibility and the consequences steaming
from the lack of space law are important and can deter
the University or other institutions to undertake new
projects.
As one can see, sometimes legal barriers can
become more important than technological barriers.
Teaching space law is thus a primary condition to
enable the development of outer space activities.
Incidentally, the COPUOS comprises these two aspects
by having both technical and legal subcommittees.
Teaching space law has several goals:
- - To raise awareness of the outer space statute
and its various problems,
- - To consolidate elites knowledgeable of space
law ,
- - To popularize the fundamental principles of
space law,
- - To establish the basis for the creation of a
space policy,
- -To achieve progress in creating national and
regional space law,
- - To allow legal support for space projects,
- - To facilitate the work of space agencies and
the establishment of cooperation agreements at
the international and the national level
(between industries, universities and the State).
IAC-12,E1,3,6,x14714
III. ELEMENTS FOR THE TEACHING OF
SPACE LAW
Many times before, the topic of teaching space law
has been discussed in previous works *. From these
works I propose a new classification based on two
basic elements, on the one hand, the methods or
modalities of teaching, and on the other, the
complementary tools for teaching.
As methods or modalities, we refer to courses
comprised in the syllabus for the undergraduate level
of law school, graduate level courses, seminars,
symposiums and lastly moot courts.
As complementary tools, we refer to specialized
literature on space law, the existence of research,
university exchange programs for faculty and
researchers, the creation of specialized centers or
institutes, and the establishment of internships and jobs
related to the spatial field.
These two elements are essential, and the
development of one without the other is impossible or
it would not fulfill the goal of creating a true legal
awareness on space law, thus allowing the actual
development of spatial activities.
IV. CHALLENGES
The challenges in the implementation of teaching
space law are reflected in both, the methodology and
the complementary tools.
The challenges for the methods
The first challenge is to know what should be
taught, that is, defining what space law is. This is a
tough question to answer, since we must have a broad
concept of space law, whether it refers to a
multidisciplinary category of law that covers all outer
*
Tuinde P.H, Masson-Zwaan T, ibid.
3
space related activity (insurance, contracts, spatial
contracts, international public law, international private
law, etc) or just to a specialized branch of international
public law*. Whilst this challenge seems to have been
overcome in developed countries, which adhere to the
multidisciplinary approach, is not superfluous in
developing countries because many of them lack the
basic grounds and ignore even the corpus iuris
spatialis. Rephrasing the first challenge, is to define
whether teaching space law, in a State with no
knowledge on space law, should take the broader or the
narrower approach. In my opinion, it should start the
way it did initially in the developed countries, defining
space law through the narrower approach, of being just
a branch of international public law, while studying the
UN system. However, is utterly important to keep in
mind that this approach is only temporary and should
in the medium term be extended to the broader
approach.
The second challenge is to know whether it should
be taught, and considered in the syllabus, as a course
on its own or as topic within another course, like
international or constitutional law, to name some.
Ideally, space law should be taught as a course on its
own, but when this happens, is generally, and
specifically in developing countries, an elective course.
If it were taught as a compulsory course it could be
widely known. (In Sergio Arboleda University, it is
taught as a 20 hours elective course). Ideally, each law
professor should teach the aspects of space law related
to their specialty (insurance, constitutional,
international, etc.)
A third challenge is to define the relevance of
seminars, short courses, and the assembling of graduate
courses. Indeed, given that the target population in
*
Lafferranderie G., General introduction to and overview of
space law teaching and education, IISL-ECSL symposium
on capacity building in space law, Vienna, 2007
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/lsc2007/sym
p-01E.pdf; Kerrest A., The state of the art of space law
teaching and the need for a multidisciplinary approach, IISL-
ECSL symposium on capacity building in space law, Vienna,
2007, http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/lsc2007/symp-
02-1F.pdf, among others
IAC-12,E1,3,6,x14714
space law is reduced in developing countries, law
schools must choose between one or two of the
aforementioned modalities. A progressive process
should be followed here, meaning that seminars should
be done in addition to the courses, and then move to
regular seminars and short courses and finally
postgraduate and doctoral programs.
The challenges for the complementary tools
Firstly, when it comes to research on space law,
universities in developing countries often overlook this
topic or consider that research in this topic is a waste of
time and resources. However, it is essential that law
schools create research projects on space law. Only
thus countries will be able to create, in the medium and
long run, the legal framework to support outer space
policy and projects.
Secondly, in the teaching of space law, universities
lack vision when shaping their study programs, since it
might seem like there is no easy access to the job
market for space law students. Universities prefer the
teaching of spatial science and engineering over space
law. Hence, training and exchanges of faculty and
researchers are seen as an expense and not an
investment.
Thirdly, access to information, documentation and
doctrine on space law is quite complicated either due to
the high cost of these materials or due to the lack of
bookstores interested in importing these documents,
also, the language in which these documents are
written constitute a major obstacle. The vast majority
are in English, a few in French and fewer in Spanish.
Therefore, many developing countries are challenged at
teaching space law, because the major doctrinal
references are inaccessible to them.
And finally, a fourth challenge is the lack of
adequate structures to support and promote the
teaching of space law for specific regions, such as the
European Centre of Space Law (ECSL). Additionally,
spatial agencies, which do exist in developing
countries, lack vision to encourage particular study
programs or universities. Spatial agencies or entities in
4
charge of spatial activity in these countries, fail to
establish a clear policy on internships and job creation,
thus, discouraging over time the study of space law,
feeding in a vicious circle that is difficult to break.
V. ADVANCES AND PROSPECTS OF SPACE
LAW TEACHING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Yet, despite the challenges described earlier, many
elements allow for a shred of hope on the teaching of
space law.
Regarding the methods
The increasing number of satellite projects, or
CubeSats, on behalf of universities in developing
countries, leads institutions to wonder about the legal
aspects of the implementation and use of these projects
and to turn to professors knowledgeable on space law.
Another element is the summer program of the
International Space University (ISU), whose objective
is to train students from developing countries, and the
significant financial support these students receive.
However, as has been proposed, the seat of this
summer university, should change every now and then
to every continent in order to facilitate the attendance
of African and Latin American students.
Also, despite the poor emphasis in space law and
policy that UN regional centers have done so far, the
Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology
Education for Latin America and the Caribbean
(CRECTEALC), aware of the emerging needs, has
thought on the creation of a course on space law.
Additionally, there has been recently a proliferation
of seminars on space law. To mention some in Latin
America, there is the Space Conferences of the
Americas*, and conferences in different countries like
*
Guzman Gomez C., The creation of policy for Latin
America Area, myth or reality?, 24th SYMPOSIUM ON
IAC-12,E1,3,6,x14714
Mexico, Ecuador, Chile and Colombia. It is noteworthy
to say these conferences have been possible, largely
due to the support obtained by the Secure World
Foundation.
Finally, the big interest of the International Institute of
Space Law (IISL) to extend the invitation to the
Manfred Lachs Moot Court to participants from
developing countries. On the one hand, by the means
of allowing, in 2011, the participation of a group of
students from the Sergio Arboleda University, to the
American round, on an equal footing with the North
American universities, even foreseeing the chance to
create a Latin American round. On the other hand, with
the creation of the African round, in 2012, which had
its first rehearsal in South Africa, during the 62nd
Congress of the International Astronautical Federation
and whose finalists this year will participate in the
world finals. This constitutes a milestone.
Regarding the complementary tools
The advances on the complementary tools are much
more meager or mediocre.
Nonetheless, we can emphasize that an effort is
being made in the publishing of the seminars outcomes.
Similarly, a major effort is being made to publish a
series of books, in Spanish, accessible to all on the
Internet and on paper†. Also, there is evidence of
increasing research in some countries, although a
greater scope is yet to be achieved.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
From this analysis it can draw the following
recommendations:
SPACE POLICY, REGULATIONS AND ECONOMICS,
IAC-11,E3,1,11,x11289,2011.
† A Project from the Sergio Arboleda University under
direction of Professor CamiloGuzman Gomez
5
 - To recognize the importance of teaching space
law as a necessary condition to start outer
space activities in developing countries,
- To take the initiative of establishing a teaching
process by the law schools, a progressive
process that over time, includes all aspects of
space law,
- To modify the syllabus, create courses,
seminars and promote teacher training,
- To promote research on space law,
- To encourage the multidisciplinary approach
and to establish space law courses in technical
or science majors,
- To popularize space law through seminars and
the development of easily accessible
documents,
- To promote student participation in the
Manfred Lachs Moot Court,
- To facilitate the publishing of books and the
translation of specialized books on space law,
- To join or create cooperation with space
agencies and industry to guarantee internships
and jobs for space law students, thus
motivating the study of space law,
- To seek for cooperation with other universities
and institutions at a global scale (IAF, IISL,
SWF, etc),
- To support the creation of centers or organisms
specialized in the study of space law.
By following these recommendations, States,
universities and the private sector will be able to access
the basic and necessary knowledge for implementing
outer space policies and projects.
REFERENCES
1. The OOSA education directory,
http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/SpaceLaw/educat
iondirectory/index.html
2. Marchisio S., Networking and federatives
initiatives, IISL-ECSL symposium on
capacity building in space law, Vienna, 2007,
IAC-12,E1,3,6,x14714
View publication stats
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/lsc200
7/symp-03-1E.pdf;
3. Schneeberger J.A., Capacity Building in
Space Law, AFRICAN SKIES/CIEUX
AFRICAINS, No. 12, October 2008,
http://www.saao.ac.za/~wgssa/archive/as12/sc
hneeberger.pdf;
4. Monserrat Filho, J., The need for teaching
institutions in LAtin American and Carribean
region: specific features and initiatives, IISL-
ECSL symposium on capacity building in
space law, Vienna, 2007
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/lsc200
7/symp-04-1E.pdf;
5. Gal G., Study and teaching of space law, in
Space law, development and scope, Nandasiri
Jasentuliyana (Editor);
6. Tuinde P.H, Masson-Zwaan T., Space law
training and education, in Outlook on Space
Law Over the Next 30 Years: Essays
Published for the 30th anniversary of the
Outer Space treaty, Kluwer Law international,
1997
7. Guzman Gomez C., Space procurement
regulation: the colombian procurement act of
2010, 54TH IISL COLLOQUIUM ON THE
LAW OF OUTER SPACE, IAC-
11,E7,2,3,x12098, 2011*
8. Lafferranderie G., General introduction to
and overview of space law teaching and
education, IISL-ECSL symposium on
capacity building in space law, Vienna, 2007
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/lsc200
7/symp-01E.pdf;
9. Kerrest A., The state of the art of space law
teaching and the need for a multidisciplinary
approach, IISL-ECSL symposium on capacity
building in space law, Vienna, 2007,
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/lsc200
7/symp-02-1F.pdf
10. Guzman Gomez C., The creation of policy for
Latin America Area, myth or reality?, 24th
SYMPOSIUM ON SPACE POLICY,
REGULATIONS AND ECONOMICS, IAC-
11,E3,1,11,x11289,2011.