• Regulation of Commerce (taxation of extraterrestrial activity; trade between Earth and space facilities; trade between extraterrestrial facilities)
• Natural Resource Extraction and its Implications (mining of celestial bodies; salvage in space; treaties governing such activities)
• Contract Issues (property rights and contract enforcement without governing bodies; liability and insurance challenges for commercial launch service providers; arbitration)
• Sovereignty Concerns (competition among governments in space; antipiracy enforcement; extraterrestrial sovereignty)
• Competition Policy Issues (rules; effective enforcement; lack of governing authority; market access to space; allocating orbits)
• Technology and Innovation (spillovers between aerospace and other industries; scale economies and market power in commercial launch services and communication services; the development and application of machine learning)
• Multilateral Agreements (design of agreements; dispute settlement and arbitration; managing space trash; allocating orbits)
The goal of the workshop is twofold. The first goal is to identify promising areas for future research, along the lines outlined above. We are interested in the cross-disciplinary mix of economics, law, political science, and applied science. The second goal is to enlist interested researchers in setting up a research and workshop agenda and loose organizational/coordinating structure based on the areas identified.
The workshop will be hosted by the World Trade Institute, University of Bern. Date: 3-4 April 2020. (date to be confirmed)
Deadline for abstracts: 15 December 2019
Organizers:
Ron Davies, University College Dublin
Joseph Francois, University of Bern
Rodrigo Polanco, University of BernContact details:For further details, or to express interest, please contact Sophia Thompson,sophia.thompson@wti.org