SPACE LAW SYMPOSIUM TO FOCUS ON PROTECTION OF OUTER SPACE ENVIRONMENT
Press Release
OS/1721
SPACE LAW SYMPOSIUM TO FOCUS ON PROTECTION OF OUTER SPACE ENVIRONMENT
19960318 VIENNA, 15 March (UN Information Service) -- The status of efforts to deal with the hazards posed by accumulated debris in earth orbits will be examined from several vantage points at a symposium to be held here on Monday, 18 March, on the occasion of the thirty-fifth session of the Legal Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.The symposium, on "Protection of the Space Environment", is jointly sponsored by the Paris-based International Institute of Space Law (IISL) and the European Centre for Space Law (ECSL).
Among the presentations, Lubos Perec of the International Astronautic Federation (IAF) and the IISL will summarize the discussions on space debris which have taken place in the Committee's Scientific and Technical Subcommittee over the past two years. The status and organization of the Inter-agency Space Debris Coordination Committee will be reviewed by G. Lafferranderie of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the ECSL. The industry viewpoint on the issue will be outlined by E. Bryan Cheuvront III, of Motorola Corporation of the United States; and the current regulatory structure applicable to space debris will be presented by Vladimir Kopal, an expert on space law from the Czech Republic.
Symposiums of a similar nature have been regular features of the Legal Subcommittee's sessions since 1979. They centre on themes not specifically addressed on the body's agenda, with the aim of raising awareness of technical developments and policy matters, related to all aspects of outer space activities, that could or should have international legal implications. Some of the issues emerging in these informal exchanges of expert knowledge and opinion may become issues to be dealt with by the Subcommittee in the future.
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