ESPI Report 25 on “Current Legal Issues for Satellite Earth Observation” online

ESPI Report 25 on “Current Legal Issues for Satellite Earth Observation” online

25 August 2010.  ESPI Report 25 addresses the crucial legal questions on the use of satellite imagery data for treaty monitoring and on privacy conflicts derived of satellite data collection and use. The report rises the issues that are now beginning to sprout and will be at the spotlight of legal experts and EO application developers in the coming years.

The full title of this report is “Current Legal Issues for Satellite Earth Observation: Treaty Verification and Law Enforcement Through Satellite Observation, Privacy Conflicts from High Resolution Imaging”. It gathers contributions from leading legal and technical experts on those two main topics. Starting by a general overview on emerging legal issues of satellite EO imagery, the contributions expose practical examples such as the legal concerns to be taken into account by GMES and those involved in disaster management to follow with the use of Satellite EO imagery for treaty verification and enforcement. Contributions lined up in the second part of the publication bring forward privacy issues already raised in other contexts which are also applicable to satellite EO imagery, move then to analysing the general understanding of privacy and the challenges to apply it to a global instrument and finalise with the application  of the European Convention on Human Rights and EU law to this space application. The report is the outcome of the conference that was held in ESPI on 8-9 April 2010 (related webnews here) and is composed by the contributions of the speakers on their topics as well as a report of the roundtable and conference conclusions. The publication (as the conference) is a joint endeavour of ESPI with the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS, represented by Rainer Sandau, who is also a co-editor of the Report) including the cooperation with the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) and the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), which was led on ESPI’s side by Resident Fellow Matxalen Sánchez Aranzamendi.
 
 
Contributors to ESPI Report 25 (from left): Kai-Uwe Schrogl (ESPI), Ray Purdy (Faculty of Laws, University College London Bentham House), Catherine Doldirina (McGill University, Montreal), Jean-Michel Contant (IAA), Matxalen Sánchez Aranzamendi (ESPI), Gunter Schreier (DLR), Ed Parsons (Google Earth), Herbert Allgeier (Chairman of the ESPI Advisory Council), George Cho (Law Faculty of Applied Science, University of Canberra), Frans G. von der Dunk (Space and Telecommunications Law Program, University of Nebraska), Sai'd Mosteshar (London Institute for Space Policy and Law), Atsuyo Ito (Researcher, Tokyo), Rainer Sandau (ISPRS-IPAC), Jean-Francois Mayence (Belgian Federal Office for Science Policy), Tanja Masson-Zwaan (IISL), Jana Jentzsch (Attorney-at -law, Hamburg)
 

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ESPI Report 25 : “Current Legal Issues for Satellite Earth Observation: Treaty Verification and Law Enforcement Through Satellite Observation, Privacy Conflicts from High Resolution Imaging”