Status of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee as an International Structure

The article is dedicated to the actual topic of the status of such an international structure as the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), which is not an international organization, but which legal entities participating in its work can use to promote the interests of the states behind them to include coordinated in this committee conclusions (of a technical nature) into non-legally binding UN documents and instruments. The article examines the history of the creation of this structure, its status and the international legal meaning of the proposals, reports and statements it develops. When considering the above issues, the author, conducting a comparative vocabulary and terminological analysis of IADC documents, legally non-binding instruments of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and international space law treaties, used the general scientific method of cognition. The final part of the article expresses an opinion about what role this structure can play in creating a possible market for «services» for cleaning outer space.

Inter-Agency Coordination Committee on Space Debris (IADC), international space law, UN COPUOS and its subcommittees — Legal (LSC) and Scientific and Technical (STSC), entitling instruments and documents, legally non-binding UN resolutions and documents, space debris, outer space cleaning