•  
  •  
 

Matthew Lively

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This article has three interrelated purposes. It 1) makes several novel contributions to and unite problematically disparate pieces of space law scholarship, 2) illustrates a disconnection between U.S. strategic space policies and the U.S. practice of military operations in outer space, 3) offers a new framework for international military space law, Evolutive Regime Assertion, that could remedy that connection and advance U.S. strategic interests while enhancing the safety of space operations for all the world. Evolutive Regime Assertion is mostly a prescriptive framework, but some of its elements are descriptive as well. In advancing the utility of the framework, this article illustrates two significant and one minor problem the U.S. has in squaring its space military operations and international law under the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (OST): the jus ad bellum, the jus in bello, and the “peaceful purposes” clause of OST Article IV. This article discusses the following aspects of Evolutive Regime Assertion: theory, elements, justifications (including how aspects of Evolutive Regime Assertion have already been implemented), and methods of implementation of the framework. The article relatedly recommends changes to U.S. space policy to ameliorate the U.S.’s international military-legal problems in outer space, including the introduction of another novel space law concept: inverse proportionality.

Download

Included in

Law Commons

Share

COinS