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What happens if an astronaut commits a crime in space?

International Criminal Law examines the application of the rules of Criminal Law in states. For example, a Spanish citizen injures an Englishman in Switzerland. The question of which state's Criminal Code will be applied to this crime examines the International Criminal Law.

astronaut gun crime commits


Well; What if a space dimension is added to the international dimension in terms of criminal law?

The two major powers of space Russia and the United States are conducting experiments in special laboratories built on the planet in order to measure the reactions of human beings in the constraining conditions of outer space. In these experiments, psychological factors as well as physical difficulties that humanity may face come to the forefront. In some experiments, criminal elements manifest themselves. Perhaps the most famous of these events is as follows:

In an experiment conducted by the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems in 1998, seven Russian and Japanese male astronauts and cosmonauts and a Canadian female astronaut - Judith Lapierre - lived in a replica of the MIR Space Station for 110 days. The aim of the experiment was to analyze the adaptability of astronauts in space-like conditions on the biomedical plane. For 110 days, however, things went wrong, and some astronauts were dragged into crime. These included wounding, attempted murder and even sexual harassment by a Russian cosmonaut against Canadian female astronaut Judith Lapierre.

What happens if a crime is committed in space?

In our previous writings, we have introduced agreements that prevent space from being regarded as “res nullius yani, that is, the sovereignty of any state. In the eighth article of the Outer Space Agreement, which is one of these basic agreements, there is a rule in the registered space vehicles of the Contracting States that the jurisdiction will continue in the launch vehicle if they are launching countries.

In terms of multinational spacecraft, there is an internationally signed agreement: the International Space Station Agreement.

The International Space Station agreement, which was first signed in 1988 by Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency and the United States, followed by Russia in 1998, consists of four parts.

1- Jurisdiction

2- Preservation of intellectual and industrial rights of discoveries and inventions

3- Claims for damages resulting from accidents and similar problems

4- Criminal Judiciary

After a long and stressful day, we will look at article 22 of this agreement to answer the question of what would happen if a European astronaut punched and wounded his Canadian colleague in the station's US laboratory and escaped to the Japanese module.

The element based on the logic of the substance is the national law to which astronauts are subject to citizenship. However, as an alternative to this provision, if the act of the astronaut gains an international dimension, for example, the above example, legal action may be taken under the law of the goods or persons affected by the act of the perpetrator.

In addition, in the event of a crime, the International Space Station agreement has its own Ver Giving Back ”provisions. Refund is the transfer of a person in the territory of a State to another State upon request, in order to carry out investigations or prosecutions or to execute the sentenced sentence in case the suspect is accused or accused of a crime committed in the territory of another state.

Even if there is no “extradition arasında agreement or protocol between the States Parties to this agreement, the agreement itself will replace the protocol for extradition.

As such, the International Space Treaty, which is the first in the international arena in terms of the concretization of Space Criminal Law, will continue to serve as an example for future space criminal law texts.

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