The legal regime of outer space in light of the Law of the Sea - Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century - page 392

these activities are 'the province of all mankind'. The freedoms of exploration and use
are intended to serve as a limitation of the absolute freedom to carry out space activities,
which should be performed on an ethical basis for the advantage of the whole of mankind
('province of all mankind'). The presence in the OST of Article I, paragraph 1, is because
of the need for space law to be legitimized. Unlike the law of the sea, which is essentially
based on old customs, space law, at the time, concerned only principles de lege ferenda
(Kerrest, 2004b ) .
Article I.1 raises some questions in regard to how to implement this ethical clause and
whether it also entails access to space as a precondition for the freedoms of exploration
and use (Hobe, 2009 ; Del Ville, 2009 ) . Strictly speaking, it is debatable whether access to
space deals with a faculty or a right granted to all. Opponents of such an opinion remark
that the Treaty simply 'consacre une liberté d'accès à l'espace extratmosphérique et non un
droit d'accès' (allows for freedom of access to outer space rather than a right to access),
but should rather be an unconditional faculty to access to outer space. 'Toutefois en aucune
cas le principe de liberté des activités spatiales ne signifie que tous les Etats, quelque soit
leur stade de développement doivent être aptes, d'un point de vue technologique, à accéder
à l'espace extratmosphérique. Le principe de liberté d'accès à l'espace extratmosphérique
et d'exploration ne constitue pas un droit effectif d'exploration pour tout Etat demandeur et
non doté de capacité spatiales' (In any event, the principle of freedom of use does not sig-
nify that all states, regardless of their degree of development, will be technologically able
to access outer space. The principle of freedom of access to outer space does not automat-
ically imply a right to exploration for any states who wish to, but which may not possess
the necessary technological capabilities) (Del Ville, 2009 ) .
The gap between states with and without space capabilities should therefore be solved
through the principle of cooperation, which is at the basis of space law and should be inten-
ded as a remedy to inequality, especially in terms of technological discrepancies between
states. Indeed space missions in particular require international cooperation since they fre-
quently rely on the technological and financial capacities of several states. The principle
of cooperation has been implemented through multilateral and bilateral agreements and es-