Description
Outer space is crucial to the functioning of the modern state – any state – and is indispensable to the great powers as an economic and military force multiplier. Developments of recent years have accelerated the battle to fill in ‘gaps’ in the existing legal regime governing space access and use. With commercial and military stakes so high, we therefore have a real-time case study in the formation of international law (IL) against the backdrop of classic international relations (IR) power struggles, uniting ‘real world’ and academic debates.
Using a constructivist–rationalist approach, I explore how states strategically deploy IL to advance political interests in outer space. I assess such ‘legal contest’ by examining major legal claims/actions, accompanying justificatory discourse, and the reception of other states in the international system.
I focus on legal contest surrounding questions of ‘who gets to benefit from space resources’ and ‘who gets to define which military uses of space are acceptable’. By comparing these examples, I tease out multiple ways by which states seek to leverage IL as a source of power, or substitute for other forms of (material) power in ensuring access (or denying others access) to space and its concomitant commercial and military advantages.
