By KANISA GEORGE
Human beings, our norms, habits and even our questionable quirks shape everything around us. As we change, institutions and widely accepted perspectives change. So too does the law. Legal principles move with the ebb and flow of life, and laws are constantly developing. But in some cases, laws are far behind human development.
As we move towards a future dominated by technology and space travel, we hold our breath to see how the law would respond and whether it would catch up to speed. Movies like Interstellar and Passengers have made us think about the possibility of seeing the earth from out of space, and now companies like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX are making those dreams a reality. As a result, space travel has moved far beyond some outlandish sci-fi fantasy and has planted itself amid our modern world.
Generation X can now add space travel to their bucket list as companies are racing to make commercial space flight a key feature of space tourism. But how is this going to be regulated? According to the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, space law comprises a variety of international agreements, treaties, conventions, and UN resolutions. These include the Outer Space Treaty, the Liability Convention, the Registration Convention and the Return and Rescue Agreement.
The UN Outer Space Treaty of 1967 outlines the basic framework for a number of principles that govern space exploration, military and weapons use, and liability for damages. At the top of the list is the exploration and use of outer space. The treaty states that exploration and use should be carried out for the benefit and interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind. As such, outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, use or occupation, or other means. In fact, not even the US has rights to lunar land after planting a flag on the moon.
One interesting part of space exploration is the International Space Station (ISS). Governed by the Inter-governmental Agreement on Space Station Co-operation, the ISS is a modular space station that's part of a multinational collaborative project involving Russia, Japan, Europe, Canada and the US. Although subject to international law, questions of law arise when conventions are breached or crimes are committed aboard the ISS.
In 2019, a NASA astronaut was accused of identity theft, which many deemed to be the first crime ever committed in space. How then does the law apply? And how are jurisdictional issues settled? Under the ISS agreement, when a crime is committed on the ISS, the country who's national was involved has criminal jurisdiction, unless people from other countries were affected. One writer considered a somewhat complex legal situation where a civilian staying in a space hotel stole from another guest, whose laws would then apply? In a time where space tourism is within our reach, how would these legal issues be settled?
Space tourism is such a novel con
