Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects: Definition and Determination of Damages after the Cosmos 954 Incident
![handle is hein.journals/frdint8 and id is 263 raw text is: CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL LIABILITY FOR
DAMAGE CAUSED BY SPACE OBJECTS:
DEFINITION AND DETERMINATION
OF DAMAGES AFTER THE
COSMOS 954 INCIDENT
INTRODUCTION
The United Nations General Assembly endorsed the Con-
vention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space
Objects' (Liability Convention or Convention), on November
29, 1971.2 The Liability Convention was the result often years
work3 by the Legal Sub-Committee of the Ad Hoc Committee
on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space4 (COPUOS). One of the
goals of the Convention is to provide a measure of damages
for cases involving injury or damage caused by space objects.5
1. Mar. 29, 1972, 24 U.S.T. 2389, T.I.A.S. No. 7762, 10 I.L.M. 965 [hereinafter
cited as Liability Convention].
2. G.A. Res. 2777, 26 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 29) at 25, U.N. Doc. A/8429
(1971); see Foster, The Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space
Objects, 10 CAN. Y.B. INT'L L. 137, 137 (1972). The United Nations (UN) Ad Hoc
Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), created on December
13, 1958, had adopted and submitted to the UN General Assembly the final draft
convention on September 10, 1971. Id.; see also G. ZHUKOV & Y. KOLOSOV, INTERNA-
TIONAL SPACE LAW 101 (1984). The convention is actually the first specific interna-
tional agreement on liability in the area of public law relations. Id.
3. The first draft proposal on liability was submitted by the United States on
June 4, 1962. USA: Proposal: Liability for Space Vehicle Accidents, U.N. Doc.
A/AC.105/C.2/L.4 (1962). The final draft was endorsed on November 29, 1971. See
C. CHRISTOL, THE MODERN INTERNATIONAL LAW OF OUTER SPACE 61 (1982); Cheng,
Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, I MANUAL ON
SPACE L. 83, 83 (1979).
4. The first United States proposal, U.N. Doc. A/AC.105/C.2/L.4, supra note 3,
was submitted to COPUOS' Legal Sub-Committee, which has been the forum for the
development of international space law in the United Nations. C. CHRISTOL, supra
note 3, at 16-17. For a discussion of the birth of COPUOS, see id. at 12-20.
5. See infra notes 12-19 and accompanying text. The Liability Convention, supra
note 1, defines the term space object as including component parts of a space object
as well as its launch vehicle and parts thereof. Id. art. I(d). This non-definition was
the result of the acceptance by the Legal Sub-Committee of the suggestion that
,space object' had a reasonably understood and clear meaning and that it was only
necessary to include in a definition all the component parts and equipment of a space
object which could cause damage. Foster, supra note 2, at 145. Some problems
remain with the definition of the term. Id. at 144-49; see C. CHRISTOL, supra note 3, at
68, 72-73, 83. It is concluded that the absence of a specific definition in the Con-
vention of a 'space object' should not be regarded as a meaningful defect of the
agreement. Id. at 108. A suggested definition is that of a man-made vehicle
designed for launch into orbit and possessing the characteristics and potential neces-
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