Adelaide Law School leader on 'Woomera Manual' to clarify international law on military space conflict

Adelaide University law school and its international and national partners working on the manual to clarify existing law applicable to military activities in space. 

Adelaide Law School at Adelaide University led an international effort with McGill University (Canada), Exeter University (United Kingdom) Nebraska College of Law (United State of America) and the University of New South Wales in Canberra to draft The Woomera Manual, the world’s first definitive text on international law as applied to military uses of outer space.

Professor Dale Stephens of Adelaide Law School was editor in chief of the manual, due to be ready in 2023. Professor Melissa de Zwart and associate professor Matthew Stubbs, both of Adelaide Law School, were participating as core experts. Adelaide Law School also was contributing a research coordinator and student rapporteurs to the project.

The manual would articulate and clarify existing law applicable to military activities in space, in particular armed conflict involving space. It would indicate limits that international law placed on such activities, including those limits that prohibited a threat of, or use of, force in outer space and the conduct-of-hostilities rules for an armed conflict reaching into outer space.

The Woomera Manual (named after South Australian outback town long associated with multi-national space operations) on the international law of military space activities and operations received financial support from the Australian and Canadian governments. It also had backing from the United States Air Force, the international committee of the Red Cross, the Union of Concerned Scientists and many other organizations who are contributing legal and technical experts to its drafting.

The Woomera Manual aimed to be a widely recognised and accepted objective statement of existing international law (lex lata) applying to military space operations. Government lawyers (especially military lawyers), policy makers, decision makers and military space operators comprise the key target audience of the manual. But it also was expected to spark interest and debate among a wide range of international institutions and the general public, as well as serve as a platform for more academic discussion and research, particularly as legal principles and policies were developed in response to changing political realities and the evolving global security environment.