Problems with Enforcing International Space Law on Private Actors

CHRISTINA ISNARDI*

This Note argues that the body of international space law is largely unenforceable on private actors. The author contends that the law may be better enforced by (1) creating a single international regulatory and judicial authority that is equipped with the enforcement mechanisms necessary to regulate private actors in space and (2) strengthening domestic space law. This Note will first discuss the background of commercial space activity, international space law, and provisions in space law that relate to private actors and enforcement. Secondly, this Note will address problems with enforcement of international space law on private actors, particularly concerning the ambiguities in the law that allow private actors to avoid enforcement, the lack of enforcement mechanisms within the international space law treaties and within United Nations regulatory agencies, and the inadequacies of the current framework of domestic law in enforcing international space law. Lastly, this Note will delve into potential solutions regarding how to satisfactorily enforce inter- national space law on private actors. Specifically, this Note supports calls to strengthen the enforcement of domestic space laws and establish a new international space organization or authorize the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to regulate and adjudicate all international private space matters.

* Juris Doctor Candidate, Columbia Law School. Thank you to Professor Lori F. Damrosch for her guidance and to Alexander C. Bavis, Austin D. Kuhn, Afia M. Kwakwa, and the rest of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law team for their continual support. A special thanks to my sisters and friends for invigorating my spirit, my father for instilling in me a yearning to learn, my mother for imparting to me the perseverance to carry on, and my grandfather for inspiring me to look up towards the sky.