The Road to Outer Space

“THE FIRST INSTRUMENTS THAT MEN SENT INTO OUTER SPACE TRAVERSED THE AIRSPACE OF STATES AND CIRCLED ABOVE THEM IN OUTER SPACE, YET THE LAUNCHING STATES SOUGHT NO PERMISSION, NOR DID THE OTHER STATES PROTEST. THIS IS HOW THE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT INTO OUTER SPACE, AND IN IT, CAME TO BE ESTABLISHED AND RECOGNISED AS LAW WITHIN A REMARKABLY SHORT PERIOD OF TIME.”

Judge Manfred Lachs,

the North Sea Continental Shelf Cases, ICJ, 1969(1) North Sea Continental Shelf, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1969, p. 3. Dissenting opinion of Judge Lachs.