Res Communis

KARI: No Need to Play Blame Game, Third Launch Will Take Place

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Source: Arirang (Korea’s Global TV)

While there has been speculation as to whether Korea will even get a third chance to launch its two-stage satellite carrier Naro the Korea Aerospace Research Institute says such rumors are unwarranted.
According to the state-run aerospace institute it does not matter who is responsible for the failure of the second launch attempt of Naro the third launch will take place irrespective of liability.
KARI added that there is no need to play the blame game as the 2002 contract between Korea and Russia clearly states that if the launch fails even once out of the two times Korea has the right to request a third launch from Russia.
The institute also explained the only instance when the responsible party must be identified is when the rocket fails to place the satellite into the target orbit.

Defense bill boosts missile scrutiny

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Source: Politico

Md. businessman arrested; among six charged in Iranian satellite scheme

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Source: Washington Post

PTO teams with Google on database

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Source: Government Executive

The Patent and Trademark Office announced Wednesday it has reached a two-year “no-cost” agreement with Google to make patent and trademark data electronically available for free to the public in bulk form.

Saying it lacks the technical capacity to offer such a service, PTO said the two-year agreement with Google is a temporary solution while the agency seeks a contractor to build a database that would allow the public to access such information in electronic machine-readable bulk form…more

The Forum on Earth Observations IV: Climate, Energy, and National Security

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Source: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

Meeting will be held on June 9, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

Climate, Energy, and National Security:
Meeting the Environmental Information Challenge

The need to better measure the planet in order to more effectively manage it has never been greater. Join key leaders who will discuss the linkages between climate, energy, and national security. Confirmed speakers include:

•Sherri Goodman, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Board Secretary, CNA
•David Dean, Senior Advisor, Office of the Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy
•Jim Lewis, Director and Senior Fellow, Technology and Public Policy Program, CSIS
•Julie Gourley, Senior Arctic Official of the United States, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, U.S. Department of State
•Robert Huebert, Professor, Department of Political Science and The Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary
•Martin Jeffries, Program Director, Arctic Observing Network, Division of Arctic Sciences, Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation
•RADM David Titley, Oceanographer and Navigator of the Navy; Director, Task Force Climate Change
•Phil DeCola, Senior Policy Analyst, Office of Science and Technology Policy, The White House
•Ralph Keeling, Director, CO2 Program, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
•Dina Kruger, Director, Climate Change Division, EPA

…more

SpaceX gears up for crucial rocket launch

By Sara M. Langston and blog faculty

Source: msnbc

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – California-based SpaceX has laid out a Friday timetable for the first test launch of its Falcon 9 rocket — and the first big test of President Barack Obama’s plan for human spaceflight…

Obama’s commercial options
Obama’s space plan calls for commercial providers such as SpaceX, as well as United Launch Alliance and Orbital Science Corp., to send crew as well as cargo to the space station once safety requirements are satisfied.

Such commercial options would take the place of NASA’s Ares 1 rocket development effort, which would be canceled if Congress signs off on the president’s plan. That cancellation is controversial in part because it would likely lead to thousands of layoffs among the space agency’s traditional contractors…[more]

Manfred Lachs – outstanding lawyer of the World

by Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz and the blog faculty

The University of Warsaw is hosting a Conference on Judge Manfred Lachs in June:

Dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw professor Krzysztof Rączka

and

Director of the Institute of Public International Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw profesor Zdzisław Galicki

have the honour to invite for the conference organised under the auspices of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, Radosław Sikorski

Manfred Lachs – outstanding lawyer of the World

24-25 June 2010
Senate Room of the University of Warsaw
The Kazimierzowski Palace
University of Warsaw, ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28

_________________________________________________
24 CZERWCA 2010 R.

Godz. 10.30
Registration of the conference participants

Godz. 11.00
Formal openning of the conference
 prof. Krzysztof Rączka, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw.
 prof. Zdzisław Galicki, Director of the Institute of Public International Law, Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw.
 prof. Maciej Szpunar, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.

Godz. 11.30
I session
 Manfred Lachs – world-famous scholar, judge and patron, prof. Renata Szafarz, Institute of Legal Science of the Polish Academy of Science.
 The recollection of the Second World War and the First Decade of Peace, prof. Kazimierz Równy, Polish Academy of Science.
 Manfred Lachs in recollections of His associates, prof. Janusz Symonides, Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw, Jerzy Makarewicz, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
 Manfred Lachs – teacher of public international law, prof. Zdzisław Galicki, University of Warsaw.

Godz. 13.00
Lunch

Godz. 14.00
II session
 Diplomatic activities of Manfred Lachs, dr Marcin Nowacki, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
 Manfred Lachs’ opinions on teaching of public international law, prof. Anna Przyborowska-Klimczak, University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska.
 Judge Lachs’ Space Law Scholarship, prof. Joanne Gabrynowicz, University of Mississippi.
 The principle of implementation of commitments in good faith. Introduction to the theory of international obligations, prof. Cezary Mik, University of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński.

Godz. 15.45
Coffee Break

Godz. 16.15
III sesja naukowa
 The Law of Treaties beyond the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties: the Question of Consent to be Bound by the Treaty, prof. Małgorzata Fitzmaurice, University of London.
 Multilateral Agreements in the Era of Globalization, prof. Maria Frankowska, Southern Illinois University School of Law.
 Council of Europe Multilateral Conventions,, dr Janusz Szymański, University of Białystok.
 Political Effect of an Objection to Reservations made to Multilateral Agreements, dr Tomasz Kamiński, University of Warsaw.

Godz. 18.00
Recapitulation of the first day of Conference

After the first day of conference, we invite participants to an integration meeting on the scarp at the back of the Kazimierzowski Palace
_________________________________________________
25 CZERWCA 2010 R.

Godz. 9.30
The Openning of the Second Day of Conference

Godz. 9.30
IV session
 Manfred Lachs’ vision of an international tribunal, mgr Piotr Siurnicki, University of Warsaw.
 Reservations to the Declaration on the recognition of the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ, dr Rudolf Ostrihansky, University of Warsaw.
 Institutionalization of international dispute settlement in the field of environmental law, prof. Jerzy Menkes, Warsaw School of Economics, dr Magdalena Słok-Wódkowska, University of Warsaw.
 Jurisdiction of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, dr Edyta Lis, University of Maria Curie- Skłodowska.

Godz. 11.00
Coffee break

Godz. 11.30
V session
 Manfred Lachs’ opinions on the extension of public international law on the outer space, dr Katarzyna Myszona-Kostrzewa, University of Warsaw.
 Manfred Lachs – reflections on the sources of space law, mgr Damian Maria Bielicki, University of Silesia.
 The space law and the allowed use of outer space, mgr Wojciech Szlawski University of Lodz.
 Liability for damage caused by Space Objects, mgr Łukasz Kułaga, University of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski.

Godz. 13.00
Lunch

Godz. 14.00
VI session
 Ways of peaceful settlement of disputes in space law, dr Paweł Durys, Ministry of Defence.
 Remote sensing from the perspective of public international law, mgr Łukasz Koba, mgr Marcin Pączek,University of Rzeszow.
 Some legal barriers to the development of advanced technologies in Poland, Mateusz Wolski Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements.

Godz. 15.30
The end of the Conference
prof. dr hab. Zdzisław Galicki, University of Warsaw

Export Control Policy as a Guide to Secrecy Reform

by Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz with the blog faculty

Source: Secrecy News

“The problem we face,” said Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates last week, “is that the current system, which has not been significantly altered since the end of the Cold War, originated and evolved in a very different era with a very different array of concerns in mind.”  He was talking about the U.S. export control process, but with minor differences he might just as well have been speaking about the national security classification system, since an increasingly obsolete model of security underlies both policy regimes.

“America’s decades-old, bureaucratically labyrinthine system does not serve our 21st century security needs or our economic interests,”Secretary Gates said April 20 at an event hosted by Business Executives for National Security.  “Our security interests would be far better served by a more agile, transparent, predictable and efficient regime.  Tinkering around the edges of the current system will not do.”

The White House expressed a similar view in an April 20 fact sheet. The current U.S. export control system, it said, “is overly complicated, contains too many redundancies, and tries to protect too much.”  The scope of export controls is so broad that it “dilutes our ability to adequately control and protect those key items and technologies that must be protected for our national security.  The goal of the reform effort is ‘to build high walls around a smaller yard’ by focusing our enforcement efforts on our ‘crown jewels’,” the White House said.

In fact, the export control system is so messed up, senior defense officials told reporters at an April 19 press briefing, that “the system itself poses a threat to national security.”

The Administration’s proposed solution for export control policy is based on principles of simplification, consolidation and a focus on the highest value items to be controlled.  This translates into a single export control list, a single licensing agency, a single enforcement agency, and a single information technology system for the entire export control program.

A similar approach could be applied to classification policy, perhaps in the following way.

A single classification system:  Currently there are two parallel classification systems, one for general national security information, based on executive order, and one for nuclear weapons-related information, based on the Atomic Energy Act.  In many areas of defense and foreign policy, the two systems overlap, generating unnecessary complexity and confusion.  The dual classification systems also significantly complicate the declassification process.  Moving to a single classification system would simplify the classification process, facilitate training of personnel, and increase declassification productivity.  A useful interim step would be to transfer the nuclear weapons classification category known as “Formerly Restricted Data” (FRD) into the general national security classification system so that FRD records — on topics such as stockpile size and weapon storage locations abroad — could be handled and declassified just like other records containing national security information.

A consolidated set of classification guides:  Currently there are nearly three thousand classification guides in government that prescribe what information is to be classified and at what level.  Instead there could be maybe three– one for defense operations and technology, one for intelligence, and one for foreign policy (and perhaps one more for nuclear weapons information if the two classification systems are combined).  This kind of consolidation would help promote standardization across agencies, including ease of correction and change of classification policies.  It would also facilitate oversight and enforcement of proper classification practices.

An enhanced oversight mechanism:  If there is going to be increased uniformity and consistency in classification across the government, then a strong oversight mechanism will be needed to adjudicate and resolve the inevitable conflicts that will arise among individual agencies, and the deviations between policy and practice.  The existing Information Security Oversight Office could help fulfill this role if the President grants it the power and the responsibility to overrule erroneous or unwise classification decisions.

A drastic reduction in scope of classification:  Just as the export control system “tries to protect too much,” the same is true in spades of the classification system.  (Random example: The total dollar cost of the CIA’s CORONA satellite program, which ended in 1972, is still considered classified information.)  “Frederick the Great’s famous maxim that he who defends everything defends nothing certainly applies to export control,”Secretary Gates said last week.  The corresponding view in classification policy is Justice Potter Stewart’s familiar statement that “when everything is classified, then nothing is classified….”  The forthcoming Fundamental Classification Guidance Review that was required by executive order 13526 should help to reverse the growth of the classification system over the next two years.  But other targeted measures may also be needed to achieve the optimum classification state of “high walls around narrow areas.”

“The proposition that a more focused and streamlined system actually helps our national security can go against conventional wisdom,”Secretary Gates said.  Nevertheless, “I believe it is the right approach, and it is urgently needed, given the harmful effects of continuing with the existing set of outdated processes, institutions and assumptions.”

The Obama Administration is just beginning to consider the possible outlines of a future classification system that is “fundamentally transformed.”

“I … look forward to reviewing recommendations from the study that the National Security Advisor will undertake in cooperation with the Public Interest Declassification Board to design a more fundamental transformation of the security classification system,” President Obamawrote when the latest executive order on classification policy was issued on December 29.

Committee on Science and Technology U.S. House of Representatives Hold Hearing on NASA’s Plans

By Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz with the blog faculty

Source: Committee on Science and Technology

Key Issues and Challenges Facing NASA: Views of the Agency’s Watchdogs [Scheduled] 10 AM EST