It is accepted that sovereignty does not extend up infinitely beyond the point of outer space.\u00a0 There is disagreement as to where this boundary occurs.\u00a0 It is generally assumed to be somewhere between 150 and 200 miles upward.<\/p>\n
The UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was established in 1958 and regulates activity in relation to outer space.\u00a0 A number of treaties and principles on state laws have been included under the committee.\u00a0 The basic principle is that outer space may only be used for peaceful means and that it is the common heritage of mankind.<\/p>\n
The UN 1963 declaration on the exploration and use of outer space was followed by a series of treaties giving effect to the principles.<\/p>\n
The exploration of outer space, including moons and celestial bodies, is to be carried out in the interests of all countries, and irrespective of their economic and scientific development. It is to be the province of all mankind.<\/p>\n
Outer space, including the moon and celestial bodies, is not to be subject to a claim of national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, whether by occupation or by any other means.\u00a0 It is prohibited to establish military bases and install nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction in outer space.\u00a0 States must avoid harmful contamination and other adverse changes in the environment resulting from the introduction of extra-terrestrial matter.<\/p>\n
The Outer Space Treaty has been revised by a 1979 agreement relating to the activities of states on the moon and other celestial bodies.\u00a0 The moon is not subject to appropriation by any state or claims of sovereignty by use, occupation or otherwise.<\/p>\n
The agreement confirms that the states are to achieve an equitable sharing of the benefit derived from those resources having regard to the interests and needs of developing countries. The efforts of countries which have contributed directly or indirectly to the exploration of the moon shall be given special consideration.<\/p>\n
There are treaties covering astronauts, satellites and damages caused by them falling back to earth.<\/p>\n
A 1968 agreement on the rescue of astronauts and return of objects launched into space and the Convention on international liability for damage caused by space objects supplemented measures dealing with outer space. States are liable for damage caused by their satellites and equivalent objects falling to the ground.<\/p>\n\n
\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
States States of necessity must have a territory.\u00a0 Within its territory, the state has the right to exercise jurisdiction and the functions of a state. It is a basic principle that states may not exercise or purport to exercise jurisdiction over other states.\u00a0 However, it may exercise jurisdiction over its own nationals. The number of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10407"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21079,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10407\/revisions\/21079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}