What level of education is required for participants in this competition?

The competition is open to college-level participants.

When does the competition take place?

The competition runs for several days in the spring.

European Rounds of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition 2026

Apr 7–10, 2026Poznań, PolandIn-person

ConcludedRegistration closed

The European Rounds of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition will convene in Poznań, POL, bringing together college-level participants from across the continent. This prestigious event, hosted in a central European city, serves as a critical platform for aspiring legal professionals to engage with complex issues in space law. Participants will argue hypothetical cases before panels of distinguished judges, simulating proceedings of international judicial bodies.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the dominant committee topic. Click through for the full country profile.

Poland

As the host nation, POL demonstrates its commitment to fostering international legal education and engagement in space law.

Role in topic

POL provides the venue for the European Rounds, facilitating the gathering of legal talent and expertise from across the continent. This role underscores POL's growing interest in and contribution to the discourse surrounding international space law.

United States

A leading spacefaring nation, USA's legal and policy approaches significantly influence global space law discussions.

Role in topic

The USA is a primary actor in space exploration and commercialization, with its national space policies and legal interpretations often setting precedents or influencing international norms. Its involvement in space law discussions, though not directly participating in these European rounds, provides a significant backdrop for the legal principles debated.

Russia

A historical pioneer in space, RUS contributes significantly to the foundational principles and ongoing evolution of space law.

Role in topic

RUS, as one of the original spacefaring nations, has played a crucial role in shaping the initial international space treaties. Its current space activities and legal positions continue to be central to the development and interpretation of international space law, impacting the very cases argued in competitions like this.

China

An increasingly prominent space power, CHN's expanding activities necessitate its active participation in shaping future space law.

Role in topic

CHN's rapid advancements in space technology and exploration mean its legal and policy stances are becoming increasingly important in international space law. The issues debated in the competition often reflect the challenges and opportunities presented by the rise of new space powers like CHN.

Luxembourg

LUX has emerged as a proponent of commercial space mining, influencing discussions on resource utilization in space.

Role in topic

LUX has taken a proactive stance in developing national legislation to support commercial space activities, particularly in the realm of space resource utilization. This perspective introduces novel legal questions and challenges to traditional interpretations of space law, making it a relevant point of discussion in moot court scenarios.

Topics & background

The history behind each committee topic and the states that shape it.

Space Law: Governing Activities Beyond the Atmosphere

Space law emerged in the late 1950s as the launch of Sputnik forced states to confront whether national sovereignty extended upward indefinitely and how to prevent the Cold War from extending into orbit. 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 (OST), the 1968 Rescue Agreement, the 1972 Liability Convention, the 1975 Registration Convention, and the 1979 Moon Agreement. The OST establishes outer space as the 'province of all mankind,' prohibits national appropriation, bars weapons of mass destruction in orbit, requires that the Moon and other celestial bodies be used exclusively for peaceful purposes, and holds states internationally responsible for national activities, including those of private actors. The legal framework, designed for an era of two state-run space programs, is now strained by commercialization, mega-constellations, in-orbit servicing, and the prospect of resource extraction. The United States' 2015 Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act and Luxembourg's 2017 space resources law authorize private appropriation of space resources, a position formalized multilaterally through the Artemis Accords (2020) but contested by states that view it as inconsistent with the OST's non-appropriation principle and the Moon Agreement's common heritage concept. Russia and China have advanced an alternative through the International Lunar Research Station initiative. COPUOS Working Groups on space resources, long-term sustainability, and the dark and quiet skies issue are attempting incremental consensus. Contemporary disputes also include the proliferation of orbital debris following destructive ASAT tests by China (2007), India (2019), and Russia (2021); the stalled Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament; spectrum and orbital slot allocation through the ITU as LEO constellations such as Starlink and OneWeb scale; and questions of liability and jurisdiction when private operators cause damage. The Manfred Lachs moot problem typically requires delegates to litigate these tensions through the OST, Liability Convention, Registration Convention, and customary international law before a simulated ICJ.

Key players

Public International Law: Sources, State Responsibility, and Adjudication

Public international law (PIL) is the body of rules governing relations between sovereign states and, increasingly, other international actors such as international organizations and individuals. Its modern foundations rest on the Peace of Westphalia (1648) concept of sovereign equality, codified through the UN Charter (1945), the Statute of the International Court of Justice, and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969). Article 38 of the ICJ Statute identifies the recognized sources: treaties, customary international law, general principles of law, and, as subsidiary means, judicial decisions and scholarly writings. The International Law Commission's 2001 Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, although not a treaty, have become the principal reference for attribution, breach, countermeasures, and reparation. PIL is also the matrix in which specialized regimes — space law, the law of the sea, international humanitarian law, human rights, trade, and environmental law — are situated. Questions of lex specialis, fragmentation, and the hierarchy of norms (including jus cogens and erga omnes obligations) shape how tribunals reconcile overlapping regimes. The ICJ, ITLOS, the WTO Appellate Body (currently incapacitated), investment arbitral tribunals, and regional human-rights courts have produced a dense jurisprudence on jurisdiction, admissibility, and the interpretation of treaties under VCLT Articles 31–33. Recent advisory opinions — on climate obligations, the legal consequences of Israel's policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and the obligations of states regarding marine environmental protection — illustrate how PIL is being asked to address systemic challenges. For a space-law moot, PIL provides the procedural and substantive backdrop: rules on treaty interpretation, state responsibility for the acts of non-state actors operating from a state's territory or under its jurisdiction, the standard of due diligence, the law of countermeasures, and the requirements of standing and consent to jurisdiction before the ICJ. Delegates are expected to integrate these doctrines with the specialized space-law corpus and to argue compatibility, lex specialis relationships, and remedies under both regimes.

Key players