In 1988, a number of European lawyers, both practitioners and academics, started to reflect on how the law of space activities, and especially research in this field, could be better promoted in Europe. At that time, the advent of a new manned space programme was a strong catalyst which faced lawyers with a sudden new challenge.
The existing means for dealing with that challenge were far from being adequate. Space law research was the province of individual interest and of a few European Institutes that ran specific courses or seminars in space law. Practitioners and academics from across Europe only met occasionally. In short, space law research, teaching and practice were uncoordinated and fragmented, and survived largely without an effective interface with those lawyers and non-lawyers in the space business that actually generated space law norms and requirements.
Recognising that there was much effort required to meet these needs, the European Space Agency (ESA) decided to initiate action. Under Article III of the ESA Convention, ESA is bound to facilitate access to and exchange of documentation, gather relevant information, offer advice and opinions, and work out proposals in the space sector. The Agency was, moreover, already in the process of setting up a legal database (ESALEX) for its own purposes, with a store of technical, scientific and legal documentation from ESA and international sources.
The ESA Executive, led by its legal advisor, Gabriel Lafferranderie, after having obtained support from the Member States Delegations, contacted the various communities likely to be interested. The response was remarkably enthusiastic. ESA therefore convened a meeting in October 1988 to set out the project in broad terms and conduct preliminary exchanges of views. The Agency was encouraged by the participants at the meeting to take matters further. To help it do so, representatives from the various communities and regions were invited to join a preparatory group.
On 12 May 1989, less than a year after the preparatory group had started its work, a further meeting was held at the Headquarters of the European Space Agency to lay the foundations of the European Centre for Space Law.
This meeting, which saw the inauguration of the Centre, adopted the ECSL Charter and elected the Centre's first Board. The following goals were adopted in the Charter of the new body:
Status
The Centre is not a new institute or research establishment attached
to a localised body. It is not a library either. The Centre, moreover,
has no legal personality. It is an informal structure drawing together
all who wish to take part in the evolution of space law.
The Charter of the Centre is itself a loose, informal document. The temptation was deliberately avoided to couch it in the usual terminology of a learned society's constitution. As was recognised at the 1989 inaugural meeting, this approach is the one best suited to an evolutionary process, and to a body having a necessarily diverse and open membership. It is, and will remain for a considerable time, a forum and a network rather than an Organisation in the usual and formal sense.
Structure
(i) The Secretariat
The routine running of the Centre is the task of the ECSL Secretariat
based in Paris at the Headquarters of the European Space Agency. The Secretariat
is composed of one person who works in close cooperation with the Chairman
of the Centre who, ex officio, is the Legal Advisor of the European Space
Agency. The Chairman oversees the development of ECSL activities and maintains
close liaison with the Board Members regarding future initiatives and implementation
of the Board's decisions.
The Secretariat also works in close cooperation with the Coordinator of ECSL News, which is published by the ESA Publications Division, based at ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
The Secretariat, apart from the day-to-day administration of the Centre and liaison with ECSL Members, prepares ECSL activities, including the summer course, workshops, conferences, Board and General Meetings, Practitioners' Forum... The Secretary has the additional function of reviewing membership applications, as well as responsibility for promotion of the ESALEX database. The Secretary is also responsible for the preparation of ECSL publications.
(ii) The Board
The light administrative structure of ECSL is complemented by the ten-person
ECSL Board elected by the ECSL Members for two years at the occasion of
each General Meeting.
Reflecting, as closely as possible, the Centre's various regional and interest groups, it reviews the level of activity, hears reports from the Secretariat and Board Members on action taken, discusses and makes decisions on proposals for future activities, and in general oversees the activities of the Centre. The Board meets regularly, not less than twice a year.
(iii) The Members
Under the Charter, membership is open to natural and legal persons from
ESA Member States or Associate States who are interested in the development
of space law and who accept the ECSL Charter.
The General Meeting held in June 1993 decided to introduce into the Charter the principle of a membership fee. The membership fee is rather symbolic. It aims at ensuring that ECSL Members are actually willing to belong to the ECSL community and to be involved in its activities, as well as contributing to the expenses incurred by the Centre. At the end of 1994, ECSL counted 175 full Members.
Besides the Membership as such, ECSL is surrounded by an impressive network of persons and organisations belonging to the European, or wider international, space law community. Information on ECSL is currently sent to a mailing list of some 1500 individuals and organisations.
Finally, there are various cooperation links between the ECSL community and other space law communities such as the International Institute of Space Law of the International Astronautical Federation, the Canadian space community, and the Portuguese Association for Air and Space Law. The National Points of Contact of ECSL contribute to stimulating the network of people connected in one way or another with ECSL activities at national level.
(iv) The General Meeting
Meeting every two years, its functions are:
The General Meeting has met twice so far in June 1991 and June 1993. Those two meetings were exclusively devoted to status reports, elections and exchange of views among Members. The third General Meeting, to be held in June 1995, has been conceived as an event for ECSL Members, not only from an institutional point of view, but also from a space law point of view. Half of the day will be devoted to the General Meeting itself, allowing the other half to be devoted to space law issues in the form of a workshop.
The election procedure has been slightly modified over the years. Experience proved that election at the General Meeting itself was not the most practical method from an organisational point of view, but also because, as a European structure, the European Centre for Space Law wishes to give the opportunity to vote to its Members not able to participate in the General Meeting. For these reasons, it was thought that a written election procedure was to be preferred. Such a procedure was used for the 1993 General Meeting. It was decided to follow the same procedure for the 1995 General Meeting.
In order for ECSL to develop its activities in an efficient fashion all over Europe, it was rapidly felt that relays at national level were needed. The primary purpose of such national relays is to stimulate the activities of the ECSL community. Also, they were understood both as a relay from ECSL to its Members, but also the other way round. The combination of both links is required for a proper flow of information from ECSL to its Members, but also for the support to be given by ECSL to national initiatives. The national relays are known under the name of National Points of Contact (NPOC). The NPOCs are free to choose their own form of organisation and to define their activities within the general framework of ECSL's goals and objectives, as stated in the Charter. It may also be possible for an organisation, set up as an association or with some other legal status, to have a wider range of activities and to include the function of NPOC among others.
In 1990, the Board of ECSL adopted the following principles as a basic framework for NPOCs:
Since the establishment of ECSL, NPOCs have been established in all countries where ECSL has a significant membership: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.
The General Meeting of June 1993 adopted a Resolution whereby the NPOCs were formally introduced in the ECSL Charter as an integral part of the structure of the Centre.
Overall, the NPOCs have been very active in these past few years and have contributed to the motivation of a number of ECSL Members, either by informing them of ECSL activities, or by organising, with the support of ECSL or on their own, a number of events which have developed awareness in the space community of the challenges and potential for further developments in the field of the law of space activities. The events organised by the NPOCs with the support of ECSL are included in the list of seminars, lectures and colloquia supported by ECSL in Part 2 of the present Biennial Report. The national activities of the NPOCs are described in the NPOCs reports to be found in an annex to the present Biennial Report.
Funding
The European Centre for Space Law receives a substantial part of its
budget from the European Space Agency. However, with the development of
activities, the budget does not fully cover all expenses. The Centre started
its activities with a budget of 18 000 Accounting Units. The budget for
1995 amounts to 60 000 Accounting Units. The budget covers the operational
costs of the Centre. Membership fees go into the ECSL Fund, which is being
used to contribute towards expenses incurred for the Organisation of events,
workshops and conferences for ECSL Members. Considerable efforts have also
been made to persuade sponsors to support certain ECSL activities, in particular
the summer course. Contributions in cash or in kind have been received
from Arianespace, the British National Space Centre, CASA, the Centre National
d'Etudes Spatiales, Gras Savoye, INTA, Matra Marconi Space, Spot Image,
Sener, the University of Messina, the University of Toulouse and the University
of Granada.
ECSL Biennial Report 1993-1994 (BR-104).