Law on Trial 2025 Decolonising the Cosmos
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck Central
We are in an exciting – and challenging – era of space exploration, which has the potential to impact on all of our lives. Dubbed the ‘second generation of space exploration’, it differs from the ‘first generation of space exploration’ in the 20th century, by virtue of the participation of private/ non-state actors, and increasing multi-polarity amongst state actors. Yet the only international legal instrument for space exploration was born of the first generation – the Outer Space Treaty, a remarkable document drafted at the height of the Cold War. A feat of internationalism at the time of its birth, the Outer Space Treaty nonetheless contains silences that mean that the second generation of space exploration is unfolding without containment from international law. The concept of outer space as a ‘commons’ – a space for all – is central to the treaty, but this sentiment appears to have been lost as private actor billionaires and superpower nation states increasingly turn outer space into an arena for expansionism, exploitation and – arguably – colonisation, acting akin to European nation states during 18th and 19th century colonialism. If we are to secure ‘outer space as a commons’, what legal instruments do we require? What kind of steps can we undertake collectively to preserve ‘space for all’, and to ‘decolonise the cosmos’?
Panel memberes and details to be confirmed
Contact name: Adam Gearey
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