![]() “So if my enemy is using GPS for warship navigation and I take out their satellites, is that going to affect civilians on the ground, and is that legal? What if I blow up an enemy military satellite and it breaks into tiny pieces so that orbit is rendered unusable for civilian purposes because it’s now full of space debris?” The MILAMOS ProjectĮssentially the project is aiming to get ahead of the issue. “Group three says, OK, we’re at war now what are the rules of the game? How do we protect civilians and civilian objects? How do we ensure that war which is now extending into space doesn’t unduly interfere with civilian activities elsewhere?” Schmitt explains. The third group looks at international humanitarian law in the event that two states are at war, where both states rely heavily on space assets, as is the case in any conflict today. The collaborative venture between the University of Adelaide in Australia, McGill University in Canada, and the University of Exeter in the UK, brings space practitioners, legal practitioners and academics together with the support of state legal observers to address three broad topics. ![]() The space law project, called the Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS) Project, aims to address legal uncertainty in space in a similar way. Such a document was published in 2013 – called the Tallinn Manual – to capture the international law governing cyber operations, because there were so few treaties governing activities in cyberspace. “For example, the US is not bound by any treaty that says it is unlawful to intentionally kill civilians during armed conflict however, that doesn’t mean the US says it is lawful to do so – on the contrary, the US believes it is a war crime, and that over time states have acted in a way that demonstrates that they believe such an act is a violation of international law.”Īs a result of this unique nature of international law, individuals and groups periodically put together ‘restatements of law’, which can provide guidance in the absence of law. “In international law there are areas of the law that are governed not by treaties but by a unique body of law called Customary International Law, which develops over time and out of state practice and expression that ‘this is the law’”, Michael Schmitt, Professor of International Law, University of Exeter, says.
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