The IISL Board of Directors held a telco on 26 April 2020. It was preceded by the decision of the International Astronautical Federation of 23 April 2020 to hold the 2020 International Astronautical Congress as a cyber-event from 12 to 14 October 2020 and to move the already confirmed IACs for one year, now scheduling Dubai for 2021, Paris for 2022 and Baku for 2023.
In light of this decision, the IISL Board took the following decisions, which shall provide members and friends of IISL with good opportunities to present their research and make it still possible to virtually conduct the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition. Please consult the decisions taken carefully. We will inform you on a continuous basis on further developments. For this also consult the dedicated Moot Court website.
Decisions taken by the IISL Board at its telco on 26 April 2020:
1. We will hold a virtual colloquium utilizing the platform chosen by IAF. A team comprised of PJ Blount, Catherine Doldirina, Diane Howard, and Lesley-Jane Smith will interact with the IAF to facilitate our colloquium.
a. It remains undecided how many sessions the IISL will be allowed for the live-streaming portion of IAC 2020 Cyber. The live-streamed presentations as well as all video presentations selected to be included in the IISL colloquium but not live streamed, will be available online through the
IAF platform.
b. We will explore the possibility of a pandemic topic, either as part of a 60th Birthday GNF or an
interdisciplinary initiative with the IAF.
c. There is no registration fee and there will be open access to the IAF proceedings online.
d. A video presentation and paper are required for inclusion.
2. Proceedings will be published for 2020.
3. IAA/IISL Scientific Roundtable will be pushed to IAC Dubai 2021.
4. The IISL/ECSL Symposium topic and speakers will be pushed to Legal Subcommittee 2021.
5. The Galloway will go forward as planned for December 2020 in Washington DC.
6. The 2020 Awards will be announced in connection with the IAC Cyber 2020 and our IISL General Assembly meeting for 2020. The 2020 awardees will be honored in an expanded awards ceremony at the Awards Dinner in Dubai 2021.
7. The Moot Court is proceeding in different formats, determined by region with coordination by the Moot Court Committee. Regions will determine whether to broadcast orals, if orals will be held. The committee initiated discussion with the International Court of Justice regarding the virtual participation of the judges. The ICJ is conducting some of its business virtually.
8. We will hold our Fall 2020 Board meeting the Saturday prior to the commencement of IAC Cyber 2020. The 2020 General Assembly meeting will be held midday of the day immediately following the conclusion of IAC Cyber 2020.
9. Additional activities:
a. 60th birthday photos will be presented in an online exhibition this year; physical exhibition at
IAC Dubai 2021.
b. The logo competition winner is online.
c. The anniversary book is slated for completion by October 2020. It may be presented at the
Galloway Symposium in December, if possible and based upon availability of Director and DoS chair Hobe. If this is not possible, it will debut at UNCOPUOS Legal Subcommittee in Spring 2021.
Summarizing the decisions, IISL President Kai-Uwe Schrogl remarked: “The IISL Board took swift decisions in view of replacing the physical by a cyber IAC. They will provide the Institute with good solutions to virtually interact and to continue our efforts for promoting the rule of law in outer space through Colloquium and Moot Court. The decisions also show our good partnership of IISL with IAF. While it seems that our 60th anniversary year may happen without any physical interactions, the most important good is the health of our members and friends. We will not only make the best out of 2020 but make this situation an inspiration for an also digital IISL. Nevertheless, we look forward to 2021, when we hopefully will all meet again.”
