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<article>
  <title>National Space Authorisation and the Operationalisation Deficit of Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty</title>
  <slug>national-space-authorisation-and-the-operationalisation-deficit-of-article-vi-of-the-outer-space-treaty</slug>
  <parent>
    <title>Volume 7, Issue 2</title>
  </parent>
  <post_type>
    <title>Research Article</title>
  </post_type>
  <year>2026</year>
  <volume>7</volume>
  <content><![CDATA[Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty requires states to authorise and 
continuously supervise national activities in outer space. Through 
the duty to prevent genocide and the standard of due diligence, the 
exercise of these licensing powers becomes relevant conduct under the 
law of state responsibility, yet national authorisation regimes lack the 
procedure needed to show how the powers were used. A comparison 
of two statutory strands locates the gap. New Zealand and the United 
Kingdom make consistency with international obligations a condition 
of grant, Luxembourg addresses the obligations to the operator, and 
the proposed EU Space Act omits the condition. None of these regimes 
specifies an object of inquiry, requires reasons, grants standing to affected third parties or defines a trigger for reconsideration. Germany, 
the United States and France regulate the dissemination of satellite data 
through a specified object of inquiry, defined occasions of review and 
documentation duties, but as security and export law. The foreign-policy 
risk of commercial space activity falls between the two strands. Drawing 
on arms transfer control and on English and Dutch case law on export 
licensing, the article proposes six design elements that national legislation 
can enact without treaty amendment, and argues that legislation rather 
than judicial review must close the gap.&nbsp;&nbsp;]]></content>
  <references />
  <keywords>Outer space treaty, licensing, state responsibility, due diligence, administrative accountability</keywords>
  <date>2026-10-26</date>
  <url>https://jlp.ibupress.com/articles/national-space-authorisation-and-the-operationalisation-deficit-of-article-vi-of-the-outer-space-treaty</url>
  <issue>2</issue>
  <pages>1-22</pages>
  <doi>10.69648/IVXA5948</doi>
  <language>en</language>
  <license>CC BY-NC-ND 4.0</license>
  <license_url>https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/</license_url>
  <pdf>https://jlp.ibupress.com/file/8Oqmh26Pk6y/jlp-7-2-01-hieronymi.pdf</pdf>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <first_name>Moritz</first_name>
      <last_name>Hieronymi</last_name>
      <affiliation>Beijing Institute of Technology</affiliation>
      <country>China</country>
      <orcid>https://orcid.org/0009-0007-7245-6292</orcid>
      <ror>https://ror.org/01skt4w74</ror>
      <corresponding>true</corresponding>
    </author>
  </authors>
  <journal>
    <title>Journal of Law And Politics</title>
    <issn>2671-342X</issn>
    <eissn>2671-3438</eissn>
    <publisher>Balkan University Press</publisher>
    <url>https://jlp.ibupress.com</url>
  </journal>
</article>