The Space Law Committee (IAF) is a proposed technical activities committee of the International Astronautical Federation. Its purpose is to provide a cross-disciplinary forum on space law and governance within the IAF framework, working in close partnership with the International Institute Of Space Law (IISL) and existing IAF technical committees.
This page describes the *envisioned* committee rather than an existing body, and can be used as a working draft for a concept note or terms of reference.
# Rationale The governance of outer space is currently shaped by a combination of United Nations treaties, national legislation, soft-law instruments, industry standards and emerging practices. As commercial space activities, mega-constellations, resource extraction, AI in space operations and military uses expand, there is a growing need to: - Connect legal experts with engineers, mission designers, entrepreneurs, artists and civil society. - Explore how new concepts (such as space traffic management, resource utilisation, or AI agents in orbit) should be governed in practice. - Experiment with participatory and imaginative methods (governance games, scenarios, science-fiction prototyping) that remain grounded in rigorous space law. Within the IAF, most of this work currently appears in joint symposia (e.g. IISL colloquia at the International Astronautical Congress) and in topic-specific committees. A dedicated Space Law Committee would make the legal and governance dimension more visible, while respecting and reinforcing the leading role of IISL.
# Relationship To Existing Bodies The proposed committee is designed to complement, not duplicate, existing organisations: - **International Institute Of Space Law (IISL)** IISL remains the primary learned society for space law. The committee would act as an IAF-internal bridge to IISL, helping translate IISL debates into cross-disciplinary activities inside IAF and feeding practitioner and community perspectives back to IISL. - **IAF Technical Committees** The committee would cooperate with bodies such as the Space Traffic Management Committee, Space Security Committee, Human Spaceflight Committee, Space Economy Committee and Space Life Sciences Committee. Where those committees focus on technical or programmatic aspects, the Space Law Committee would focus on legal frameworks, governance principles and institutional design. - **Committee For The Cultural Utilisation Of Space (ITACCUS)** ITACCUS provides a template for culturally oriented, cross-cutting work. The Space Law Committee can collaborate with ITACCUS on science-fiction, artistic and narrative approaches to space governance, including governance games and public-facing assemblies. The committee should explicitly recognise IISL as the central legal authority and seek formal liaison arrangements (e.g. IISL representatives as ex-officio members or co-chairs).
# Scope And Objectives The Space Law Committee would focus on the legal and governance aspects of space activities in a broad sense. Illustrative objectives: - Map emerging legal and regulatory challenges in space activities and identify gaps where additional principles, norms or institutions may be needed. - Curate sessions at the International Astronautical Congress that bring together lawyers, engineers, policymakers, investors and artists around shared governance questions. - Support participatory processes, assemblies and governance games that test future space governance scenarios while remaining anchored in real law and policy. - Provide a focal point inside IAF for coordination with IISL and with UN bodies concerned with space law and governance. - Encourage open, peer-reviewed publications and accessible explanations of space law that can be used by practitioners, educators and the broader public.
# Activities Indicative activities include: - Co-organising **technical sessions and special events** at the International Astronautical Congress in cooperation with IISL and other committees. - Hosting **governance games and scenario workshops** that use science-fiction narratives, simulations and participatory assemblies to explore legal futures. - Supporting **student and early-career engagement**, including collaboration with moot courts, model negotiations and youth assemblies. - Preparing **brief committee notes or white papers** summarising debates on topics such as space resource utilisation, debris mitigation, AI in space or human settlement off-world. - Acting as an interface for **hybrid / distributed assemblies**, allowing local groups around the world to feed structured input into congress-level discussions.
# Membership Membership of the Space Law Committee would be open to individuals from IAF member organisations with a professional interest in space law and governance, including: - Academic space lawyers and legal scholars. - Practitioners working in government, international organisations and industry. - Engineers, systems designers and mission planners with governance responsibilities. - Representatives from civil society, arts and culture working at the intersection of law, ethics and space. - Students and early-career professionals, in coordination with youth networks. To ensure academic robustness, the committee should include a strong core of recognised space-law experts, ideally in cooperation with IISL.
# Governance Game And Science-Fiction Angle The committee is envisioned as a home for experimental methods, including a **governance game** framework that can be deployed at congresses and related events: - Each congress day is structured around **provocations** (panels or keynotes) followed by **assemblies** that deliberate using simple game mechanics. - Scenarios are framed using **hard science-fiction archetypes**: narrative elements are imaginative, but every scenario is underpinned by real science, code and law. - AI-assisted, open-source tools support collaborative **script writing**, allowing participants to propose, refine and vote on scenarios that are then played out or debated. - Outputs from the game (e.g. preferred governance models, critiques, minority reports) are documented and can be fed into formal sessions, IISL colloquia or future research. This playful, Hitchhiker-style approach is intended to lower barriers to participation while maintaining legal seriousness.
# Recommended First Steps The following steps can help move from concept to a concrete proposal within the IAF ecosystem. - **1. Draft A One-Page Concept Note** Summarise the motivation, scope, relationship to IISL and other committees, and explain why a Space Law Committee is needed now. Keep it readable for engineers and policymakers as well as lawyers. - **2. Consult Informally With IISL And Key Legal Scholars** Share the concept note with IISL leadership and a small group of respected space-law academics. Invite them to act as vision keepers, co-chairs or advisory members, and adjust the scope to avoid overlap with existing IISL structures. - **3. Map IAF Committees And Identify Synergies** Identify which existing IAF technical committees are natural partners (e.g. Space Traffic Management, Space Security, ITACCUS) and outline concrete joint activities such as co-sponsored sessions or cross-committee working groups. - **4. Engage The IAF Secretariat Early** Request an informal conversation with the IAF Secretariat to understand the current process and timing for proposing new committees. Use the concept note and an initial list of interested members as a basis for discussion. - **5. Host A Semi-Open Founding Assembly** Organise an early hybrid gathering (for example connected to a conference in Cyprus) where interested parties can refine the committee’s terms of reference, identify initial leadership and agree on priority themes for the first two to three years. - **6. Prepare Draft Terms Of Reference (ToR)** Translate the outcome of the founding assembly into a clear ToR: mandate, scope, membership criteria, expected outputs, and how the committee reports to IAF bodies and coordinates with IISL. - **7. Secure Letters Of Support** Invite institutions (universities, agencies, companies, NGOs) and recognised experts to sign brief letters supporting the creation of the committee. Attach these to the formal proposal to demonstrate community demand. - **8. Pilot The Governance Game As A “Preview”** Before formal approval, run a small-scale governance game or science-fiction scenario workshop under an existing committee or side-event banner. Use it as a proof-of-concept that illustrates the value the new committee would add. - **9. Submit The Formal Proposal To IAF** Once the concept, ToR, partners and early activities are clear, submit a formal proposal through the channels indicated by the IAF Secretariat, emphasising complementarity with IISL and added value for the broader IAF community. If the committee is not immediately adopted, the preparatory work, assemblies and governance games can still feed into other initiatives (for example a Future State Congress or IISL-linked projects) and provide momentum for a future proposal.
