This is the published version of a doctoral work that began in late 2019 and was successfully defended for my doctoral degree in February 2022 through the University of Nebraska. However, the concept of this work began much earlier, around 2015, when I first began pursuit of my ll.m. with a focus on space law. I had advocated in my earlier work that nations needed to be more aggressive in efforts toward the removal of space debris from our orbital environment, going so far as to argue that even absent formal treaties, there were grounds in customary international law for even non-consensual removal. I presented that theory at the International Astronautical Congress in 2017 to a receptive audience and was published by the United States Air Force Judge Advocate Law Journal that same year.
Over the next two years, I was fortunate to engage regularly with Professor von der Dunk, my eventual supervising attorney for this work, on advancing a portion of that original concept into a much larger undertaking. In particular, I was fascinated by the efforts of mature spacefaring nations and organizations in their attempt to address the problem of debris absent any formal guidance or requirements forcing their hand to do so. It became evident that these nations and organizations recognized that in the absence of formal rules, the preservation of the orbital environment remained critical for our advancement as a species. We rely heavily on our scarce orbital resources for much of the way we live out our lives. Without a deep respect for the health of our orbital environments, much of the necessities of our daily lives, such as gps, banking, communications, healthcare, transportation, information … all of it could come to an immediate halt with the right orbital disaster.
Based on that, I undertook to fill at least an initial gap in some of the available information, primarily assessing and comparing how the major spacefaring nations and the European Space Agency (esa), absent any formal treaty law, have implemented their own orbital debris mitigation and prevention programs in an effort to do their part to preserve our most valuable orbital regions. My analysis then looked for common themes among them that might, without us having originally recognized it, risen to the level of establishing customary international law. Were that the case, our reliance on soft-law guidelines might be reduced, and our ability to aggressively advocate that there were existing legally binding rules would benefit the entire international community. This is by no means and end to the work, but my hope is that it is at least a kernel from which many discussions can be had and important conceptual advances can be made.
As I said, for many years Professor von der Dunk has been on this journey with me, through two advanced law degrees. I am thankful for his faith in me that I could successfully take this on. He has been endlessly available, answered hundreds of questions, and guided me through this at every step. In addition, I would like to thank the entire staff of the University of Nebraska, including my doctoral panel for their generous time in reviewing this work for my defense and the library staff in helping me navigate difficult searches for materials I would likely have never been able to do on my own. Additionally, my thanks to Deborah Howe who has provided enormous editorial support for me.
Finally, I would like to thank my fellow legal colleagues in my prior role whom I worked with from 2019-2022 through the duration of this work. They were endlessly supportive and responded to the needs of my clients when I was absent to focus on this effort. I owe special thanks to Mr. Brock Dahl, Mr. Ben Kastan, Mr. Brian Ryckman, Mr. Matthew Colson, Ms. Charity King and USAF Major Carolyn Carmody. Last but not least, the support staff, Ms. Shannon Nixson, Ms. Barbara Chavez and Ms. Laura Heatherly-Reiss, who navigated the demands on my schedule. Everyone involved helped make this possible without complaint and have my great respect and deep gratitude. Disclaimer Any opinions of the author expressed in this book are the author’s alone and do not reflect any official position of the United States government or the Department of Defense.