Environmental Protection in corpore iuris spatialis (Mapping the Issue)

The aim of this paper is to map the issue of environmental protection of outer space from the perspective of regulations of existing corpus iuris spatialis. The issue of the environmental protection of outer space has been a subject of considerable discourse which leaves many questions unanswered from the present corpus iuris spatialis perspective. There is no doubt that environmental concerns are an issue for the outer space legal regime and that the human activities in outer space pose a serious threat to future generations and uses of space. The article consists of five parts. In Parts I and II, the author deals with the problems of definitions of the environment of outer space and the environmental threats connected with human activity in the outer space; Parts III and IV present an overview of corpus iuris spatialis from an environmental protection perspective, and principles of international environmental law from the perspective of the future regulation iuris spatialis. Part V presents some final remarks.