What I’m Reading: Agonies of Empire

Michael Cox Agonies of Empire: American Power from Clinton to Biden (Bristol UP 2022) https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-agonies-of-american-empire £24.99 (sign up for the Bristol University Press newsletter for a discount code) In Agonies of Empire Michael Cox, Professor of International Relations and founder of LSE Ideas at the London School of Economics surveys the post-war foreign policy of […]

In Defence of International Law

I write this on the morning of Thursday 24 February 2022. I have woken up to the news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[1] This is a brutal, flagrant violation of international law, and the basic norms of the international order. After Vladimir Putin’s tirade of Monday night[2] only the most shameless of apologist can […]

On Terraforming (Part Two: Is it Legal?)

There’s a long and short answer to the question of whether terraforming is legal, and (un)fortunately one word covers both: maybe. In this post I’ll examine terraforming in the context of space law as it exists at present. There’s nothing[1] stopping the states of the world from drafting a terraforming Mars treaty, but until they […]

On Terraforming (Part One: An Introduction)

This will be the first in a series of posts on this topic, I’ll fully admit that I don’t have a plan but I have at least three more in mind, one on the legal aspects of the terraforming question, one on the ‘ethical’ aspects and one on the cultural (i.e. sci fi), I’m sure […]

New Year, New(ish) Blog

Hello and welcome (or welcome back)! I have been debating relaunching this blog for a good six months now, and getting all wrapped up in thinking about format, theme etc, things I may change (such as the name), but as is often the case these preoccupations simply delay actually doing a thing and its often […]

Apollo 11 and Space Law

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, and what better way to celebrate than a look at the space law involved in the landing![1] Background The space law situation in July 1969 was slightly more truncated than it is today. The Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States […]

Space Resources at the UN

Once again, I attended the Legal Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) as part of the delegation of the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC). In this post I will discuss the discussions under the space resource agenda item, which will hopefully be a useful exercise, I don’t go […]

Updating Space Law

This post is on a topic that I have been mulling for some time now, but was prompted by the recent editorial in the Financial Times calling for the laws of outer space to be ‘updated.’[1] I have no real issue with the piece in and of itself, there are more than a few points […]

Discussing Space Mining in Luxembourg

The second meeting of the second phase of The Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group (hereafter ‘the Working Group’) was held in Luxembourg last week (29-30 November). It was an interesting, informative and productive meeting continuing what has been an interesting (albeit at times frustrating), informative and productive process, and I’m grateful to Tanja […]

IAC 2018

The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Bremen during the first week in October was the first time that I had attended an IAC. It was, quite simply, a fairly amazing experience. The theme of the conference was ‘Involving Everyone’ which is a great theme and it was wonderful to hear that nearly half of all […]