The Centre organized a Two day National Conference on Emerging Trends in Air and Space Law was organized by NALSAR on 8th – 9th October, 2005 with eminent personalities from the field of law and science who enlightened the audience by delivering lectures on various issues coming under the umbrella of Air & Space law. The personalities lectured in the above said Conference: Mr. D.P. Rao, Former Director, National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad gave lecture on “Space Policy and Sustainable Development”. Prof. S.Bhatt, Former Professor on Space Law, JNU, threw light on-(a) “What is Outer Space Law?” (b) “Space Treaty and Space Law for future for Decades. Mr.S.S Sagar Priyatham, International Institute of Air and Space Law Leiden University The Netherlands enlightened the audience on “Satellite Communication an EC competition Law”. Mr.V. Gopalakrishnan, Senior Scientist in ISRO, HQ New Delhi, discussed the nuts and bolts of “Intellectual Property Rights and Space Activities: Emerging Issues” Mr.Mu-Chiao (Franco) Ho and Mr. Pablo Mendes Dee Leon “International Institute of Air and Space Law Leiden University, The Netherlands, Mr. R.K. Maheshawari, Director (Regulations), Directorate General of Civil Aviation participated and presented their valuable views to the participants.
On April 12th -13th 2008 Centre organized a National Conference on “Liberalisation and Privatization of Airlines and Airports in India: Emerging Legal Issues” in which learned scholars from various disciplines presented papers. Eminent Air Law luminaries, Government officials from Ministry of Civil Aviation, Air India, GATI, Consultants from International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Industry Professionals, Members of the Judiciary, prominent Supreme Court and High Court advocates, Law firms engaged in Air Law, Researchers, and other concerned stake holders, took active part and presented research papers in this Conference. Apart from that, discerning students from prestigious Law schools also put forth their Ideas pertaining to sub themes/topics in this conference. This conference ultimately led to the emergence of many multidimensional ideas which turned out to be very useful for privatizing and liberalizing Airlines and Airports in India. All said and done, this conference turned out to be a blessing in disguise to everybody. Personalities involved in the conference were, Prof. S. Bhatt, Former Professor on Space Law, JNU; Mr. Tulsi Kesharvani, ICAO Consultant and Director Aviation (AITD); Dr. C. H. Banerji, Legal Advisor, ICRC; Dhananjay Naik, Deputy Commercial Tax Officer, Government of AP. And there were on the whole 17 distinguished main speakers from all over the world, with diverse and extensive knowledge, including 43 students who presented papers on wide-range of topics.
CADL, NALSAR in association with Bharat Dynamic Limited, Hyderabad organized one day workshop on “Emerging Issues and Challenges in Imports & Exports of Missile technology control regime” on Tuesday, 14th of August 2008. Prof. P.V. Rao, Professor of Political Science and Director, Indian Ocean Studies, Osmania University, Hyderabad chaired the Session and Prof. V. Balakista Reddy, Head, CADL presented a paper on “International Law and Missile Technology Control Regime: An Overview”. He emphasised about the process of the Liberalization Privatization and Globalization (LPG) and its relevance to missile technology. He also detailed that Principles laid down by the UN Charter (i.e. General Assembly Resolutions) are not legal obligations, but can only be counted as general consensus among states. It is often referred to as ‘Soft Law’. Prof. V. Balakista Reddy proposed vote of thanks and appreciated the efforts taken by BDL to organize a workshop on such a contemporary issue like Import and Export of Missile Technology, which reflects their sense of responsibility to ensure safety and security to the country, without compromising our Nation’s nuclear non- proliferation policy. Further, he said that if India is known as a responsible member of International community, the credit for it goes to organizations like BDL. It was attended by dignitaries vis-a-vis Brig. P.Ganesham (Retd Director, Prod.) BDL, Maj. Gen. Ravi Ketherpal (Retd, CMD, BDL), Sh. T.Ramachandru, (Jt. Secretary (S), Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, Govt of India), Prof.P.V.Rao Director, Indian Ocean Studies (OU) and Prof.V. Balakista Reddy (Head, Centre for Air & Space Law, NALSAR, Hyderabad as well as Conference Convener) including participants from all defence organization from all over India.
The Centre for Air and Space Law, NALSAR organized Aerospace Law Meet-2009 on March 28 – 29, 2009 in association with Indian Space Research Organization, Bangalore and Institute of Applied Aviation Management, Calicut. The objective of the meet was to have multidimensional deliberations on the future of Air & Space Laws in India. The inaugural session was addressed by distinguished invitees like Prof. S. Bhatt (Retd.) JNU, New Delhi & ICAO Consultant, Dr. P.C.K. Ravindran (Chairman, IAAM, Calicut), Dr. V. Jayaraman (Director, NRSC, Hyderabad), Prof. Veer Singh (Vice-Chancellor, NALSAR), Prof. K.V.S. Sarma (Registrar, NALSAR) and Prof. V. Balakista Reddy (Professor of Law and In-charge, Centre for Air & Space Law, NALSAR). The other eminent speakers of the sessions include Prof. K.P. Shashtri, Prof. V. Nageswar Rao, Mr. K.R. Sridhar Murti, Mr. K.P.R. Menon, Mr. Bagla, Mr. Ravi Kiran, Mr. V. Madhusudhan Reddy and Mohd. Abdul Kadir.
Prof. Veer Singh, Vice Chancellor, NALSAR University of Law, termed it as a historic event where scientists, experts, academicians, lawyers and students of law have gathered to discuss the legal issues involved in the developments in the field of space science and aviation. Hence, he emphasized the need to have proper legislation and rued the fact that inside of making such a remarkable progress in space science and aviation India lacks proper laws to give it a direction. He then congratulated Prof. (Dr.) V. Balakista Reddy for establishing the Centre for Air and Space Law at NALSAR and for organizing the Conference. He further said that the aim of such Conference should also be to deliberate upon the ways in which public and private organizations can come together to help the nation enjoy the fruits of developments in both the sectors. Moving to specific areas he touched upon issues involved in remote sensing and related data collection and the need to protect it. He also spoke about military use of technology and need to have proper policy in place so that our scientists can create indigenous technology to meet the needs of our armed forces. He congratulated the scientists for the resounding success of Chandrayaan I. While concluding the remarks he said, the technological development is a double- edged sword and hence there is a need to regulate it and such conferences should focus on such regulatory issues.
Dr. Jayaraman, Chief Guest released the newsletter and spoke about the role of lawyers in regulating developments in air and space law. He spoke about the dilemma scientists often face about the rights and liabilities while dealing the outer space and how lawyers can step into address those issues. He also spoke about the development of international law and how in the beginning there were two diametrically opposite approaches. One taken by the U.K. “the order in air approach” and the other taken by U.S.A. “the freedom of air” approach. This was reconciled by the adoption of Bermuda Principles. He spoke about the space race between U.S. and U.S.S.R. during the cold war, which actually led to the development of technology in the field. All this led to the development of International Space Law. He mentioned various international agreements like the Rescue Agreement, Registration Convention, Liability Convention, and Moon Treaty etc. But he highlighted the fact that there is lack of rectification of such treaties. He spoke about UNCOPOUS. He said because of the unipolar world political order, in the last 20 years not even a single treaty has been signed under the UNCOPOUS though there has been parallel development of soft law. Hence, highlighting the fact that the presence of a single super power has infact hindered the progress of international law. He gave an example of how the Americans were boycotting the committee on disarmament and that they adopted “the concept of denial of freedom of action to adversaries” approach. He also spoke about Indian space science and informed the audience that the country was coming up with its own GPS System. He spoke about the need of fulfilling Dr. Sarabhai’s vision and proudly acclaimed that the western world sees India as a developed country as far as space technology is concerned.
Prof. S. Bhatt began by asking what are the goals of space science and aviation sector. He wondered why when we speak about developments in space and aviation we always focus on commercial aspects of aerospace. Then he highlighted the fact that space science and aviation sector can become the wheels of national progress and you should focus on village developments in space technology. Representing the industry, Dr. Ravindran spoke about the greatness of aviation sector as it has created millions of jobs and billions of dollars. The progress rate in the aviation industry is even greater than national GDP. He spoke about the challenges faced by the industry in the times of recession and showed a lot of faith in the resilient nature of the industry. Dr. V.Balakista Reddy spoke about the liberalization, privatization and globalization of the space and aviation sectors. He highlighted the fact that liberalization, privatization and globalization have made independent states as interdependent states and that sovereign countries are no longer the lawmakers but have become law takers. The Air and Space Law has a role in this paradigm shift. He spoke about the role India is playing as a leader of developing world in crystallizing international air and space law. India is playing its role in impressing the world that space should be used for peaceful purposes. Finally he unveiled the scheme and the theme of the programme.
International Conference on Space Law and Contemporary Issues – A Focus on Asia-Pacific Region – 24th June 2012.
The Centre on June 24, 2012, organized a one-day International Conference on Contemporary issues and challenges in the field of Space Law with a special focus on the role and relevance of countries in Asia-Pacific region, in collaboration with the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), Paris and the Indian space Research Organization (ISRO). The theme of the conference had been space technology and its myriad applications for the Asia-Pacific Region. This event witnessed huge participation and discussions on current legal issues by experts in the field of space law and space technology.
The Conference focused on several main themes, ranging from policy and legal approaches for regional space cooperation, to long term sustainability of space activities, regulatory regimes for space activities, and contemporary space law issues. The conference concluded with a panel discussion of peaceful uses of outer space. This in a way influences the decision making process at both the National and International levels including the United Nations. Eminent scholars, dignitaries , legal experts a such as Prof. Saligram Bhatt, Prof. V.S. Mani , Ms. Tanja Masson- Zwaan , Ms. Matha Mejia- Kaiser, Prof. Dr. Doo Hwan Kim, Dr. Toshio Kosuge, Dr. LI Juquian or Dr. Wang Guoyu, Dr. Sethu Nandakumar Menon, Dr. G. S. Sachdeva, Prof. Nipant Chitasombat, Dr. MYS. Prasad, Dr. Ch Banerjee. The Key note address was given by Dr. V.K. Dadhwal and special address by Dr. Martha on behalf of Dr. Tanja, President, IISL. The broad themes were: “Policy and legal approaches for regional space cooperation” ,”Trends of Outer space activities (or) Space sustainability’, “ Regulatory regimes for Outer Space Activities”, “Peaceful Uses of Outer Space – Trends and Developments: Time for Introspection”; which were divided into four sessions. A book titled “Space Law and Contemporary Issues: Perspectives on Asia-Pacific Region”, was published, as edited by Prof.(Dr.) Balakista Reddy and Dr. Rahul Nikam, Asia Law House Publications, 2012. The book is a collection of articles from the eminent jurists, space law experts, and various international dignitaries who attended and contributed to the conference.
CASL organized a Two-Day National Workshop on “Liberalization and Privatization of Space Activities in India: Emerging Legal Issues” on April 12-13, 2013. The sub themes of the workshop included the most debated issues in space activities like Commercialization and Privatization of Space Activities: Regulatory Challenges, Rule based Governance in Outer Space – Currents, Constrains and Contemporary Transformations, Satellite Applications for the Betterment of Humanity, Interface between Commerce and Space Industry, Contemporary Issues in Space Laws, Aerospace Terrorism, Space and IPR Issues, Space Debris etc. The workshop was inaugurated by Dr. K.R. Sridhara Murthi, Former Managing Director, ANTRIX Corporation, ISRO & presently, Vice President, International Institute of Space Law (IISL), Paris. He also released the CASL Newsletter. The space law experts, including Dr. G. S. Sachdeva, Former Legal Adviser, Federal Republic of Germany and Dr. Arvind Kumar, Professor and Head, Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal University and Dr.Gopalakrishnan, Policy Analyst, ISRO, Bangalore.