Space Technology and Environmental Harm: The Role of Astro-Green Criminology

It has become clear that alongside new opportunities, New Space has brought numerous new challenges, opening up a wide discussion regarding the long-term sustainability of the use and exploration of outer space. In the early phase of space law developments, which included the drafting of the main space treaties, sustainability and preservation of outer space environment were not seen as a priority. 1 It is therefore not surprising that they made little progress towards achieving sustainability. Not only did many of these provisions lack effective enforcement, but their broadness and lack of concretisation allowed for several (sometimes even contradictory) interpretations, posing difficulties in defining which activities are compliant with the legal framework, and which, on the other hand, are unlawful. Researchers have long recognised the danger of these legal shortcomings, and have called for the creation of a new discipline – Astro-Green Criminology, that would expand the lenses through which most of the legal research in this area is currently carried out, by including consideration of the question of the harmfulness of certain space activities, and not just their unlawfulness…