Legal aspects of the organization and functioning of the European Space Agency

Abstract

The paper discusses the legal aspects of the establishment of the European Space Agency and its functioning from the perspective of its own autonomous rights and the public international law. It presents and analyzes main legal instruments underlying the activity of the European Space Agency, primarily the Convention for the Establishment of a European Space Agency of 30 May 1975, as the basic source of autonomous rights of this regional specialized international organization. What follows is an outline of the competences of the Agency and the structure of its bodies. Attention is paid also to the funding of ESA, as a particularly important matter. A separate section discusses the position of the Agency from the standpoint of relevant international agreements that constitute the cosmic law as a branch of the positive public international law, both in terms of the establishment of the organization itself, and in terms of the performance of its activities in the space.

Keywords

• european space agency
• astronautics
• cosmic law
• human activities in the space
• space program
• public international law
• universe
• international organizations