Why I made this page [English version]

Why I made this page | By Giselle Bourgoing

(National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2022)

When I was in the first week of my first year of law school, I remember that a classmate sat next to me in a seminar, and asked me what I wanted to specialise in. I think I sounded a bit too confident when I said I wanted to do international space law. And I say that I perhaps sounded overconfident because when he said, “Awesome! But… what is that?” I also did not know 100% at that time. 

Nevertheless, I tried to explain to him how space law regulates human activities in space like the use of military equipment, telecommunications satellites, and the non-appropriation of outer space according to article II of the Outer Space Treaty.  To be completely fair, at the time I knew about the last one because of the film “Aloha” with Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, and Bradley Cooper where the US government is trying to take native Hawaiians' land for space militarisation (Crowe, 2015).

More than four years later, I can finally answer the question of what space law is. However, I happened to find my way through this branch of law quite tricky. Unless you studied law in the US, France, Germany, China, Russia, or another space world power, you probably did not have a course about space law in your bachelor’s curriculum. I studied in Mexico, and the only university I could find with a class in space law is the UNAM with an elective course in Air and Space Law (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, n.d.). I have not found another institution in my country that offers space law at a bachelor’s level, and unfortunately, the UNAM merges air and space legislation into one course. This means that if a Mexican law student wants to learn space law, he or she has to find other options. 

This did not stop my interest in space law as I wrote my thesis about the future of international space law and its dichotomy between privatisation and state appropriation.  However, I found myself rather lost when I started investigating space law for my thesis. I did not know where to start, who to read, what was the difference between air law, where did space begin, and how was it legislated. I felt just like Sporty, the dog who became famous for walking herself through the streets of Chicago (CBS Chicago, 2016). 

(CBS Chicago, 2016)

I hope this website helps everyone who is interested in the regulation of space activities, especially students from underdeveloped countries who do not have space law courses in their university’s curriculum. Even though the content on this web page would be normally about space law, the principal purpose of this space is to encourage the peaceful use of space technology for all nations and professions. If you are enthusiastic about outer space, then you have arrived at the right place. You do not have to be a law student or a lawyer to comprehend these website articles. In fact, I would try to write them as clearly as possible for the democratisation of legal content. I believe legal content should not be intimidating or confusing, especially when it is being created for the cooperation between interdisciplines such as with space law. 

But, why space? 

We have an immense amount of social, political, economic, and technological conflicts on Earth that it might seem absurd to dig into challenges beyond our celestial body. Nevertheless, we are not just a tiny isolated blue planet, we are the result of a 13.8 billion years old universe. Humankind is connected to outer space, and challenges on Earth are highly bonded to the challenges 100 km above Earth’s sea level, but also to the answers that space offers.

By solving dilemmas in outer space, we could find solutions to the ones we are dealing with every day in our celestial body. I could not even be sharing this article if it was not for space telecommunications! I dedicate this webpage to anyone that and uses their talents and passions to promote the exploration of outer space for a better life here on Earth. 

Furthermore, I share Valentina Tereshkova’s desire as she said in an interview with Radio UNAM “I want for young students to acquire knowledge and to apply it with peaceful purposes, so they are always creating and never destroying” (Archivo Sonoro, 2018).  

References

Archivo Sonoro. (2018). Radio UNAM entrevista a Yuri Gagarin y Valentina Tereschkova. Archivosonoro.org. https://www.archivosonoro.org/archivos/radio-unam-entrevista-a-yuri-gagarin-y-valentina-tereschkova/

CBS Chicago. (2016). Chicago Dog Walks Himself [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfNSp-tYllI&ab_channel=CBSChicago

Crowe, C. (Director). (2015). Aloha [Film]. Columbia Pictures .

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2022, March 23). ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer during a spacewalk [Fotografía]. Nasa.Gov. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/esa-astronaut-matthias-maurer-during-a-spacewalk-0

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. (n.d.). Derecho Aéreo y Espacial. Facultad de    Derecho UNAM. Retrieved 29 March 2022, from http://www.dgire.unam.mx/contenido/normatividad/lic/planes_estudio/der04/area1_der_administrativo/derecho_aereo_y_espacial.pdf