The environmental

liability in outer space mining

Environmental Damage

- in space law

- In international law

Lauching State and the Fault

Space Object

Nuclear Power Source

Environmental DamageEnvironmental damage in space law

The term damage means loss of life, personal injury or other impairment of health, or loss of or damage to property of States or of persons, natural or judicial, or property of international intergovernmental organizations“.

Art.1 Liability Convention

“In exploring and using the Moon, State Parties shall take measures to prevent the disruption of the existing balance of its environment, whether by introducing ad verse changes in that environment, by its harmful contamination through the introduction of extra-environmental matter or otherwise” .

Art.7 Moon Agreement“The exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind“

Art. I Outer Space Treaty

“(…)States Parties to the treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including Moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter and, where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose(…)”

Art. IX Outer Space Treaty

Environmental damage in international law

Launching State and the Fault

Art. I of the Liability Convention

Launching State “means a State which launches or procures the launching of a space object or a state from whose territory of facility a space object is launched”

Liability of the State and civil liability

Space ObjectArt. I Liability Convention

“The term space object includes components parts of a space object as well as its launch vehicle and parts therefore”

Nuclear Power Source

The launching State is obliged to pay a compensation for “duly substantiated

expenses for search, recovery and clean-up operations, including for assistance

received from this parties“

Principle 9(3) of the Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space

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