International space law has always seemed out of step with the pace of actual space activities. An intensive burst of space-law making from 1967 to 1979 resulted in the five United Nations space treaties that together established broad principles by which State activities in space would be governed. These agreements were in many ways prospective and speculative, envisaging that mining of celestial bodies was imminent, that States would shortly construct installations on the Moon, and that the in-space rescue of astronauts in distress was a real possibility. None of these scenarios eventuated at the time. Technological developments mean that some of these science fiction visions, and others, are now starting to be realised. The law as adopted in the 1960s and 1970s, however, is not adequate for the new space age, and States have been unwilling to adopt new binding agreements to regulate activities that are actually taking place. Three recent publications on space law address in different ways this tension in the law for outer space, how it came to be so, and how actors are responding to the impasse in State-led law-making.

Norm Formation in Space Law, by Kimitake Nakamura, is fundamentally shaped by Nakamura’s experience as a senior diplomat in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His practitioner perspective prompted the big question that the book seeks to answer: why has space law taken the shape it has? Nakamura’s study takes a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary approach, canvassing the theoretical underpinnings of norm formation, the political and legal context in which international space law has developed, and contemporary issues that demand further normative development. It also addresses non-binding international norms and municipal space law.

Indeed, a strength of the volume is that it draws so many sources of binding and non-binding norms together in one place. Chapter One’s survey is an excellent resource for students and those new to space law. The breadth of sources of space law and regulation covered sets it apart from much of the literature, which tends to focus on the UN space treaties and deal with other relevant agreements and sources of law only in passing.

Originally published in Japanese in 2023, the monograph reviewed here is an updated English-language version, published in 2024. Nakamura draws extensively on Japanese-language scholarship on both space law and theories of international law. In doing so, he opens a bridge to these bodies of literature for an English-reading audience.

Even though much of the content will be familiar to the space law community, Nakamura’s approach is a fresh one, combining his real-world experience and political theories of international regimes. Ultimately, Nakamura concludes that despite the growing number of space actors, it is still the interests of the space-active States that drive or arrest normative formation for space.

As indicated by its title, International Space Law in the New Space Era: Principles and Challenges applies Cold War–era space law to contemporary space activities and issues. The new space era is characterised by a multiplicity of actors, the increasing number and sophistication of commercial applications of space technology, and advanced military capabilities that have become an integral part of battlespace planning.

The topics addressed by the contributing authors, recognised experts in their respective fields, cover the central topics of international space law. The inclusion of a chapter on the role of the International Telecommunication Union, a regulatory actor often given less attention in the space law literature than the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, is welcome. Similarly, addressing international secured transactions law in space and dispute settlement helpfully broadens the horizons of the discipline, as does the inclusion of Vazhapully’s chapter on Third World approaches to international space law.

The chapters follow a similar pattern of looking back to the law as it was agreed in the 1960s and 1970s, and augmented by non-binding Declarations, and casting forward to how it might apply as we move into the second quarter of the twenty-first century. Newman, for example, revitalises the debate on the demarcation of outer space in light of technological advances in hybrid “space planes”. Several chapters explore the law, and legal ambiguity, regarding mining on celestial bodies. Variath considers how existing rescue and return obligations will apply to space tourists.

The most recent book of the triplet is the Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Space Law, part of Elgar’s Concise Encyclopedias in Law series. The entries are pithy and easy to read, mostly three to four pages in length. The encyclopaedia’s subject area – space law – is a wide remit, taking in the domestic legal regimes of key spacefaring States, private law arrangements such as space insurance, and other relevant regimes such as human rights, in addition to international space law.

The encyclopaedia would make an excellent companion volume for students navigating space law for the first time, or as a convenient point of reference for practitioners. Although they vary considerably in length, many of the entry reference lists provide thorough reading lists for further research.

The range of entries that the editors have selected for inclusion points to the fact that critical issues are being dealt with outside of traditional State-led initiatives. That said, the editors also point out that while the UN treaties have not kept pace with space activities, some 60 years on, they continue to provide an important foundation for the governance of outer space.

International space law has not changed very much since the 1970s but the activities that that body of law is called on to regulate have undergone a revolutionary transformation. It is hard not to share the pessimism of many of the authors contributing to these three volumes at the unwillingness of States to develop new law for a new technological age of space activity. The note of optimism is that the regulatory landscape has, nevertheless, not been static. As these three volumes show, actors are using private law and domestic arrangements as alternate routes, as well as non-binding agreements and recommendations, to deal with important issues such as liability, space tourism, and the registration of large satellite constellations. Not the giant leap that space law scholars may have hoped for to reconcile the disjunction between the content of international space law and the reality of space activities, but a small step forward nonetheless.