Description:
Outer Space Law initially formed as a subset of public international law, marked by treaties and soft law instruments. The regime in the interim, as reflected in The Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Activities and Operations (released in September 2024) has expanded to include domestic laws and regulations as well as private international law. In this increasingly complex legal realm, what are the most challenging questions facing the United States and our allies, as well as private industry? With U.S. economic security and technological capabilities long considered core components of U.S. national security, what provisions ought to be put into place to ensure that U.S. corporate actors are able to develop critical space technologies? Simultaneously, how should commercial activity in space be regulated to ensure that private companies comply with domestic and international law? What legal norms should mark governance structures for off-world settlements? How ought we think about resource rights in light of new and emerging technologies, much less establish norms for traffic management in Low Earth orbit (LEO), Medium Earth orbit (MEO) and Geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO)? This panel will press on the new and emerging issues which accompany the interplay among contractors, the commercial sector, military alliances, and U.S. national security in outer space.
Moderator:
- Prof. Laura K. Donohue, Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law and National Security, Georgetown Law.
Panelists:
- Sarah Banco, Senior Director, Legal, Space X.
- David Koplow, Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law, Georgetown Law and Co-editor of The Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Activities and Operations (Oxford University Press: 2024).
- Thomas McSorley, General Counsel, NATO DIANA (Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic).
- Todd Pennington, Senior Research Fellow for Space Strategy and Policy, Center for Strategic Research, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, former Staff Judge Advocate, USSPACECOM