From 8 to 19 April 2013, the fifty-second session of the Legal Subcommittee (LSC) of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was held in Vienna.

The text of the set of recommendations on national legislation relevant to the peaceful exploration and use of outer space could be agreed upon and was adopted by the Legal Subcommittee. This result could be achieved thanks to the efforts of Prof. Marboe, chair of the Working group on national space legislation between 2008 and 2012, and the chairman of the LSC, Tare Brisibe (Nigeria), as well as UNOOSA acting as the secretariat of the session, most importantly though Niklas Hedman and his team. The text will be considered for adoption by the Main Committee in June 2013 and later by the General Assembly at its session this autumn. Further discussions concerned, inter alia, the agenda items “Status and application of the five United Nations treaties on outer space”, “Information on the activities of international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations relating to space law”, “Capacity-building in space law” and “Review of international mechanisms for cooperation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space”. Under this latter item, Prof. Setsuko Aoki (Japan) was elected as the chair of the working group for the workplan 2014 to 2017.

For more information on the work of the session see the Draft Report of the Subcommittee and addenda www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/en/COPUOS/Legal/2013/docs.html