Lessons learned from japanese space activities and experiences with dispute settlement: the need for appropriate dispute prevention and settlement measures in regulating space activities

摘要

The Japanese space community recently experienced dispute settlement at the court level for the first time in its history. A dispute arose between the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) and the Government of Japan as represented by the former Ministry of Transport (currently the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport pursuant to the central government reforms of January 6, 2001) over the final payment of a launch services fee. NASDA submitted the resolution of this dispute to civil conciliation, at the Tokyo District Court, in accordance with a procedure set forth under the Civil Conciliation Law of Japan. Although this conciliation case was purely domestic and restricted to the Japanese public sector, I believe that it raises some important points about dispute settlement for space activities. In this paper, among other things, I emphasize the importance of ensuring that the dispute prevention measures do not themselves generate disputes in similar cases. Emphasis is also placed on the elaborate consultation mechanism as part of the pre-conciliation or arbitration measures. In addition, I suggest certain consideration to be made in thinking about alternative dispute resolution (ADR) measures, such as the necessity of establishing a specific body for ADR on space activities, and the importance of involving experts on space law, space technology, and customs for international space activities in the ADR mechanisms to obtain proper and efficient judgment.