4th Nigerian National Rounds of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition

International space law emerged at the height of the Cold War, as the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the ensuing US-Soviet space race forced states to confront the legal status of activities beyond Earth's atmosphere. The UN General Assembly established the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in 1959, which produced the foundational corpus juris spatialis: the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the 1968 Rescue Agreement, the 1972 Liability Convention, the 1975 Registration Convention, and the largely unratified 1979 Moon Agreement. These instruments enshrined core principles — outer space as the province of all humankind, non-appropriation, freedom of exploration, peaceful uses, state responsibility for national activities (including those of non-governmental entities), and international liability for damage caused by space objects. The legal regime, designed for an era of two superpower space programs, is now under strain from the commercialization and democratization of space. Mega-constellations such as Starlink and OneWeb, the rise of private launch providers, lunar and asteroid resource-utilization initiatives (e.g. the US 2015 Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, Luxembourg's 2017 space resources law, and the US-led Artemis Accords), and a growing population of orbital debris have outpaced treaty-era assumptions. Anti-satellite (ASAT) tests by the United States, Russia, China, and India, together with the militarization of dual-use space assets, have revived concerns about an outer-space arms race and the adequacy of Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty, while negotiations on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) remain stalled at the Conference on Disarmament. Today, debates focus on whether existing treaties can be reinterpreted to cover space resource extraction, debris remediation, traffic management, cyber-interference with satellites, and military activities, or whether new binding instruments are required. COPUOS Working Groups on the Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities and on Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activities reflect this tension, as do competing initiatives such as the Artemis Accords and the Sino-Russian draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space (PPWT). For moot court purposes, contemporary disputes frequently turn on questions of liability under the 1972 Convention, jurisdiction and registration of space objects, due regard and harmful interference under Article IX OST, and the legality of resource appropriation — issues that sit at the intersection of treaty law, customary international law, and emerging state practice.