Code of Conduct at Sea and in Space: Rules and principles for sociotechnological resilience in sea and space

University of Gdansk, Chair of International Public Law, Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdańsk together with Commission of Space Sciences together with Baltic Sea and Space Cluster would like to kindly invite you to the conference "Code of Conduct at Sea and in Space: Rules and principles for sociotechnological resilience in sea and space" which will be held at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdańsk as well as online on 22nd September 2022.

The conference "Code of Conduct at Sea and in Space: Rules and principles for sociotechnological resilience in sea and space" is one of the series of conferences organised in cooperation with Commission of Space Sciences together with Baltic Sea and Space Cluster under the patronage of Polish Space Agency from the moment of founding of the Commission od Space Sciences in 2017.

Space activities require new legal framework. International conventions in this field were prepared over half a century ago and do not reflect the dynamic development of space technologies. Issues such as the ownership of planets or asteroids, which at the times of formulation of corpus iuris spatialis were considered as fiction or at least science fiction, are now becoming fundamental in shaping the codes of conduct of space era. As an alternative for underdeveloped and outdated international space treaties regime, national as well as regional law is being created. Half the trouble if those national legislative initiatives remain in line with international legal standards. But some countries and organisations see the opportunity of attracting private space operators to their jurisdiction by introducing norms which do not go in line with most fundamental international space law principles. Another interesting tendency has also been the rising importance of soft law instruments in the field of regulation of space activities as well as growing significance of private operators not only in performing space activities but also in standards setting.

Some lessons in the field of designing regulatory framework can be taken from the international maritime law, which has undergone similar processes some decades ago.

Interesting analogies with can be drawn from institutions developed in maritime law, like flags of convenience, costal state responsibility and process of privatisation of maritime law.