UAE creates Space Courts for extraterrestrial commercial disputes
Dubai, Feb 1 (efe-epa).- The United Arab Emirates on Monday announced that it will create “Space Courts” with an eye toward developing a judicial system to resolve commercial disputes linked to space as its Hope mission probe is expected to reach Mars within days.
An initiative called “Courts of the Future” will be launched later this year to activate the Space Courts, the Dubai International Financial Centre, an independent legal body, said in a statement.
“The launch of the project signals to the international space community the intent of the UAE to play a leading role in advancing its judicial systems to specifically direct capacity and capability to commercial space-related disputes,” the statement read.
The new court will include a group of private and public international bodies and experts with the aim of “exploring space-related legal innovations” and creating a “space dispute guide.”
It will also be tasked with “training of judges to become space-related dispute experts.”
The courts will help “build a new judicial support network to serve the stringent commercial demands of international space exploration in the 21st century,” the head of the DIFC Supreme Court, Zaki Azmi, said in the statement.
“As space commerce becomes ever more global and countries ever more connected, diverse and nimble, economies will need to enable growth. Complex commercial agreements will also require an equally innovative judicial system to keep pace, offering assurance and certainty to support and protect businesses,” he added.
The DIFC was established in 2004 as an independent judicial system based on customary law, so the UAE’s international community can have “greater confidence in the Emirati legal framework” and to promote commercial relations in the Arab country.
The announcement comes eight days before the Hope mission is due to reach the orbit of Mars, the first Arab mission of its kind, which aims to study the Red Planet’s weather and atmosphere. EFE-EPA
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