Documentation and Publications

Over the years, ECSL has, thanks to its links with ESA and relations with its Members, gathered an increasing amount of information and documentation, in the form of punctual or regular publications, or in the form of electronic data contained in the ESALEX database.

The ESALEX Database

A large part of the data contained in the database are documents which can be read in full text on-line. The following categories of documents are accessible in full text in ESALEX:

• ELDO, ESRO and ESA Basic Texts;
• International Organisations Output on Space Law (UN, EC, ITU ... ).

ECSL has initiated major work to increase the quantity of such full-text documents to be made available to its Members. The following categories of documents will be progressively added in the course of 1995:

• Case Law. Court decisions and arbitration decisions concerning space-related disputes will be available under this heading.
• Proceedings and articles. Proceedings published by ECSL will be available under this heading. Other proceedings and articles will also be available, subject to appropriate authorisation by their authors. ECSL News will be also accessible on-line under this heading.
• ESA History. The works published by the ESA History Team will be available in the course of 1995.

ESALEX also contains the following bibliographical references:

• the Inventory of Materials available at ESA Headquarters;
• the bibliographical files of the University of Cologne, Institute of Air and Space Law.

Both the above categories will be updated in 1995. ESALEX users will also have access to additional research references:

• the bibliographical files of the University of Leiden, International Institute of Air and Space Law;
• the bibliographical files of the University of Paris 1, Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches en Droit de I'Espace;
• the bibliography of articles published on ESRO, ELDO and ESA.

A procurement chapter will be added to ESALEX and is currently in its initial phase. This chapter will contain the procurement rules of all space organisations in full text, bibliographical references and, to the extent feasible, articles and proceedings in full text.

ECSL felt that, although ESALEX is basically a documentation tool, it should also be able to inform Members on short-term news, such as forthcoming ECSL workshops, conferences or other events organised in Europe, and which may be of interest to ECSL Members. Such information will be available under the heading ECSL Pinboard. The Pinboard will be loaded with information generated by the ECSL Secretariat itself, or inputs from the ECSL community.

In the course of 1995, major technical improvements should make access to ESALEX easier for its users. Firstly, ESALEX has been loaded on a new system which will facilitate access to and operation of the database by increasing the speed of the system, and allowing for a search per word in the text and by table of contents. A new User's Manual has been published on the opening of the new system. The second technical improvement will be the entry of ESALEX into the CD-ROM world. ECSL has assessed the importance of such a tool with respect to the database.It reduces connection time, avoids interruptions and, in general, gives more comfortable and user-friendly access to the database. Prototype CD-ROMs have already been printed and used during the Granada Summer Course on Space Law and Policy in 1994 when they proved to be very valuable for extensive research by the students. It should be noted that once the CD-ROM is made available to ECSL Members, ESALEX will remain available on-line, in order to enable users to take advantage of the latest updates and the Pinboard information.

The use of ESALEX has increased over the years, especially as a result of the training offered to students at the Summer Courses. ESALEX is also progressively being opened to other users such as ESA Staff, ESA Delegations, as well as to other entities in the framework cooperations (Canadian Space Agency, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs).

ECSL News

This newsletter is the vehicle for regular exchanges of information between ECSL and its Members, and between the Members themselves. The newsletter is published three times a year and an effort will be made to add one more issue per year. ECSL News is prepared as a formal and registered ESA periodical in cooperation with and through the ESA Publications Division at ESTEC. The content of the Newsletter is prepared by the ECSL News Coordinator, based at ESTEC, with the cooperation of ECSL Members who contribute articles and information. Members are encouraged to provide the Coordinator with details of the activities of interest to ECSL and suggestions for articles. ECSL News reports on ECSL events. Besides, ECSL News regularly focuses on specific topics in its feature series. The print-run of ECSL News is 2500. It is currently being sent to a mailing list of 1500 persons worldwide and distributed on the occasion of conferences in which ECSL participates.

ECSL News Topics

(by Issue No.)

1. ECSL Activities
2. ECSL Activities
3. ECSL Activities
4. Space Law Teaching in Europe
5. Commercial Uses of Outer Space
6. National Space Agencies
7. Internal Practice in Europe's Space Organisations
8. European Commercial Space Activities
9. Remote Sensing
10. Space Activities in East and Central Europe
11. ECSL Activities
12. ECSL Activities
13. Space Law Editing and Publishing
14. Liberalisation of Telecommunications in Europe
15. Intellectual Property Rights and Space Activities

Publications directed towards the academic community
ECSL has now published two editions of its booklet 'Space Law Teaching in Europe' and a new update will be prepared in 1995. It is printed and distributed by Martinus Nijhoff. With this publication, ECSL promotes space law teaching in Europe and makes students more aware of the possibilities they have to attend space law related courses. It is elaborated on the basis of a questionnaire sent to all European Universities. Each University having answered the questionnaire and where space law is taught is mentioned in the booklet, with all information concerning the nature of the course, its outline, and the name of the Professor(s). The booklet is also a vehicle for exchanges of information so that ERASMUS networks and other university exchange programmes can be more easily established.

For the purposes of its Summer Courses, ECSL has published, with Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, a document entitled 'ECSL Summer Course on Space Law and Policy, Basic Materials'. It contains a selection of articles or excerpts from books which provide the necessary basis to the students, on each of the subjects dealt with during the summer course, to prepare for the course as well as to read further during the course. The Basic Materials are now composed of two volumes, published in 1993 and 1994. Some of the lectures given in Granada will be published in the form of ECSL Proceedings and added to the two existing volumes. The three volumes are to be read as a whole. Certain professors have even recommended the Basic Materials to their students, for their own courses during the academic year.

Other publications
ECSL publishes proceedings of the workshops or conferences it organises. A list of these publications and an order form can be found in an annex to this report. ECSL has also published articles on the Centre's activities in a number of journals and reviews such as the ESA Bulletin, Space Policy, Journal of Space Law, Zeitschrift für Luft und Weltraumrecht, Revue française de Droit aérien et spatial, and Revue de l'Association suisse de Droit aérien et spatial.

The ECSL Board is currently studying the possibility, by means of bursary, prize or other, of stimulating students' publications and making available to the space law community a number of works of interest.

ECSL's Publications

1. ECSL Space Law and Policy Summer Course, Basic Materials, Volume I and 2, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1993
2. Space Law Teaching in Europe, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1993
3. Emmanuel Ducasse, L'Europe des Télécommunications par Satellite: entre Libéralisation et Coopération, étude réalisée avec le concours de l'ECSL et sous la direction de Mme Simone Courteix, 1993
4. The Implications of the CEC Green Paper on Satellite Communications in Europe, Proceedings of a workshop organised by ECSL/Dutch NPOC, ESTEC, The Netherlands, September 1991
5. Changing Europe in Space, Proceedings of a workshop organised by the Dutch ECSL NPOC, ESTEC, The Netherlands, March 1993
6. Intellectual Property Rights in Outer Space, Proceedings of a workshop organised by ECSL/Spanish Centre for Space Law, Madrid Diplomatic School, Spain, May 1993
7. Recent Developments in the Field of Protection and Distribution of Remote Sensing Data, Proceedings of the third ECSL/Dutch NPOC workshop, ESTEC, The Netherlands, April 1994
8. Intellectual Property Rights and Outer Space Activities, A World-wide Perspective, Proceedings of a workshop organised by ESA/ECSL, ESA Headquarters, France, December 1994 (ESA SP-378)
9. The Implementation of the ESA Convention, Lessons from the Past, Proceedings of the ESA/EUI International Colloquium, Florence, October 1993. Edited by the European Centre for Space Law, Martinus Nijhoff