Outer Space Weapons - The Status of International Law on Outer Space

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty outlines the principles governing outer space: most importantly that the use of outer space should benefit all nations, outer space is not subject to national appropriation, space should be open to all countries for exploration, and all space activities should be carried out for the sole purposes of maintaining international peace and security. The treaty includes the following:

• In conjunction with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, Article IV prohibits testing, orbiting, and placement of nuclear weapons in space
• Article VI establishes national responsibility for all activities carried out by corporations and any other non-governmental agencies of a given nation, thus providing the legal context in which actions may be challenged.
• Article VII establishes liability for damage to another country's property in space, now institutionalized by the 1972 Liability Convention which further establishes procedures for determining the liability of a country that damages or destroys the space objects of another country.
• Article IX provides for consultations if any signatory to the treaty believes another treaty member's actions or plans would cause "potentially harmful interference with activities in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space."

The glaring omission of the Outer Space Treaty is, of course, the legal status of space weapons. Recognizing immediately this weak spot in the treaty's language, Egypt and Sri Lanka since 1982 have annually taken turns in the First Committee of the General Assembly to present a draft resolution on the Prevention of An Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS). With its annual adoption in the General Assembly, the resolution calls on the Conference on Disarmament to commence negotiations on a legal, integrated and binding instrument to address the shortages in the legal regime on outer space. Unfortunately, such action has been consistently blocked by the United States.