Legal Status of the European Space Agency

• Author: Renáta Dolanská and Vira Halunko
• Position: Doctor of Law, Greek-Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Presov (Presov, Slovakia)/Doctor of Law, Professor, Kherson Faculty Odessa State University of Internal Affairs (Kherson, Ukraine)
• Pages: 5-17

Advanced Space Law, Volume 3, 2019 5

Legal Status of the European Space Agency

Renáta Dolanská1

Doctor of Law, Greek-Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Presov

(Presov, Slovakia)

E-mail: partners@dolanska.sk

Vira Halunko2

Doctor of Law, Professor, Kherson Faculty Odessa State University of Internal Aairs

(Kherson, Ukraine)

E-mail: vera.galunko.00@i.ua

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0563-0576

In the article, the authors reveal that, in accordance with the current international and national

legislation of member states, the positive legal status of the European Space Agency (ESA) has been

established. The authors emphasize that some factors make the legal status of ESA unprecedented, due to

the concept of inviolability of premises, property and correspondence; exemption from all types of taxes,

duties and other nancial burdens. ESA sta and experts have the same rights as employees of diplomatic

institutions. The authors argue that this potential remain unutilized because European private companies

and their employees are exempt from it. The article proposes ways to improve the legal status of ESA.

Keywords: Europe, European Space Agency, institution of inviolability, Space, legal status, private

space companies

Received: December 26, 2018; accepted: February 17, 2019

Advanced Space Law, Volume 3, 2019: 5-17.

https://doi.org/10.29202/asl/2019/3/1

Introduction

The improvement of the European Space Agency (ESA) legal status is a central issue, since

after the adoption of the 1975 Convention for the establishment of a European Space Agency,

social relations in outer space have changed. This is due not only to the development of new

space technologies, but also and mainly to private companies’ access to outer space. The State

monopoly on the exploration and use of outer space has expired.

In the specialized legal literature on space law, the issue of commercialization of the use

of outer space is often analysed. However, the immediate cause of the dicult times for ESA,

© Dolanská, Renáta, 2019.

© Halunko, Vira, 2019.