International legal consideration of cosmic Hazards and planetary defense #47

Abstract

The relevance and importance of law for the issue of planetary defense are, and should be seen as, instruments facilitating international cooperation for avoiding legal risks should they arise while carrying out planetary defense operations. Currently, there is a significant absence of a specific legal and regulatory framework governing planetary defense since the international community has for the most part not addressed this matter seriously in the past. There is one important exception in the form of the University of Nebraska study commissioned by the Secure World Foundation (Legal Aspects of NEO Threat Response). In short, there is little legal literature on this issue as the space law community has not yet conducted extensive research in this regard. The situation may be expected to change as the threats from cosmic hazards become more known broadly and processes within the United Nations and the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space continue to work in this area particularly through the Working Group on the Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities (LTSSA). This chapter briefly addresses and highlighted the need for clarifying the main legal issues relevant to planetary defense; i.e., the authority and duty to intervene, the responsibility to undertake planetary defense initiatives, as well as possible liability for damage or injury caused during such operations. It will also identify the challenges to existing international legal rules and suggest possible amendments thereto for undertaking planetary defense. Legal issues related to international response to cosmic disasters will also be briefly addressed. International space law, as provided for in the United Nations (UN) space treaties and in a number of General Assembly resolutions, lacks specific as well as binding provisions dealing with the protection of the Earth from natural cosmic hazards. Nevertheless recent actions by the UN General Assembly have led to new efforts in these areas. This has been seen in the creation in 2010 and 2010 of UN COPUOS Working Group on the Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities (LTSSA). This has even more recently seen in the actions of the UN General Assembly to activate the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) and the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG) (“International asteroid warning network: first meeting of the steering committee” and “SMPAG: summary of the first meeting” http://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/2014/02/12/smpag-summary-of-the-first-meeting/comment-page-1/The prime objective of this analysis is to examine what recent activities have been undertaken by the United Nations General Assembly, the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS), and the UN Committee on Defense Analysis to develop legal or regulatory mechanisms concerning cosmic hazards and planetary defense. The parallel part of this analysis is to consider where principles of public international law can aid in the future development of relevant regulatory or legal concepts to address the major issues presented by cosmic threats.