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1966 Y.B. Air & Space L. 463 (1966)
Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies

handle is hein.journals/yairspcl1966 and id is 485 raw text is: 



Chapter 22


    Treaty on Principles Governing the

  Activities of States in the Exploration

  and Use of Outer Space, Including the

      Moon and Other Celestial Bodies

                             V. KOPAL*




   One of the significant results of the 21st Session of the United Nations
General Assembly held in the autumn of 1966 was, without any doubt,
the agreement reached on all points in the Treaty on Principles Governing
the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, In-
cluding the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. The draft of the treaty had
been prepared on the basis of initial proposals submitted by the USSR
and the United States to the 5th Session of the Legal Sub-Committee of
the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and through
direct negotiations between representatives of both major space powers.
After a discussion in the First Committee, and upon its recommendation,
the UN General Assembly approved the text of the treaty, together with
Resolution No. 2222 (XXI), by acclamation on 19 December 1966.1 In
this resolution, to which the space treaty was annexed, the General
Assembly commended the treaty, requested the depository governments
(i.e., the USSR, the United Kingdom, and the United States) to open the
treaty for signature and ratification at the earliest possible date, and
expressed its hope for the widest possible adherence to the treaty. On
27 January 1967, the treaty was signed in London, Moscow, and
Washington by representatives of the three governments and of many
other nations.2
   After several years of discussions on space matters in United Nations
bodies, this document represents the first general treaty embracing
  *The author is a senior research fellow of the Institute of State and Law, Czechoslovak
Academy of Sciences, and member of the Commission of Astronautics of this Academy. He is
also a member of the Board of the IAF International Institute of Space Law and . member of
the International Academy of Astronautics, Section of Life Sciences. During the academic year
1966/67, he was a senior research fellow of the Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill
University.
  1. Editor's note: The texts of the treaty and of the resolution, as well as of prior drafts and
proposals, are reproduced hereunder; see Chapters 27 and 30. The texts of other UN resolutions
and documents referred to in this article and published prior to 1966 are reproduced, in extenso
or in part, in the Yearbook of Air and Space Law, 1965, p. 515 et seq.
  2. Cf. the New York Times, 28 January 1967.

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