The McGill Institute of Air and Space Law (IASL) celebrates its 75th anniversary this month, marking a milestone that came six years before orbital spaceflight launched in 1957.
To be sure, Canada was already quite active in space-related research as McGill’s institute grew up. Upper-atmosphere measurements were ongoing at least from the 1930s, according to the Canadian Space Agency, with the 1950s seeing the beginning of the Defence Research Telecommunications Establishment and suborbital launches from the Churchill Research Range in northern Manitoba, among other milestones.
So while IASL was founded in 1951 by John Cobb Cooper (who used to be counsel for the International Air Transport Association), the newer focus including space came along during the famous 1957 period that included both the International Geophysical Year and the launch of the Sputnik satellite in the Soviet Union. Space was seen as a necessary, if nascent field, according to McGill’s website, while air transport was acquiring more legal complexity in matters such as contractual liability or security threats.
These days, demand in space couldn’t be higher; nine-figure fundraises in the United States, surging space-startup support in the European Union (EU), accelerating defence demand in NATO allies including our own country, freshly fuelled sovereign-launch efforts in Canada, and numerous satellite building and launching opportunities just represent a fraction of what’s going on.
Today’s offerings at IASL include a Master of Laws, LLM (thesis), Master of Laws, LLM (non-thesis), Doctor of Laws, DCL, and a graduate certificate in air and space law. The graduate certificate allows individuals without a law degree to benefit from McGill’s education, while the other programs are focused on those who have at least the degree of Bachelor of Laws (or equivalent.) Applications to all of these programs remain competitive, with IASL often having to turn away extremely high-quality student applicants because of the program’s reputation and reach.
Taught courses this fall illustrate the breadth that McGill shows its students, including public international air law, international space law, private international air law and more. All students are deliberately exposed to both air and space law out of a recognition of the tight integration of the two fields. Today, the institute has two co-directors—and co-editors of the Annals of Air and Space Law—reflecting that dual focus of air and space: Andrea Harrington (a past IASL student who is today an associate professor) and Vincent Correia (also a professor).
“75 years means that we have a lot of very prestigious graduates from our program,” said Correia, pointing to prominent examples such as Juan Carlos Salazar, the current secretary-general of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), alongside leaders at various major airlines.
Students are able to support each other through their careers, he emphasized, through these international links; in fact, Harrington pointed out it is rare to have two people from the same country in a single class, including even from Canada.
“I’m learning different cultural norms that I wouldn’t know about, otherwise, that I can apply in my professional career,” she said of teaching the students. “So we’re all learning from each other from a cultural perspective, and I think it really helps to grow a level of understanding to be working at the international level for the rest of their careers.”
IASL’s significant projects these days include a multilingual interpretation of the UN’s Outer Space Treaty, which is authentic in English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese with an additional language included, Arabic. The treaty is considered foundational to space law, and yet there has not been a significant analysis of the differences between these languages, noted Harrington. The school will be analyzing potential systemic issues, areas where language differences may be causing confusion in interpretation or application, and areas for cooperation in the future.
IASL is also involved in examining Arctic air and space law, which has new relevance in today’s sovereignty and defence environment. “There are such significant environmental and security implications around the Arctic, even if you’re not an Arctic country,” Correia said. Funding has also been provided to look at advanced air mobility, including vehicles such as taxis, drones and others that could provide connectivity in GPS- or GNSS-restricted areas.
Capacity-building in the north also has applications for zones such as the African Union, he noted, in which IASL is trying to help various countries increase the capacity of their local air and space agencies—and to continue diversifying, more generally, the models of international space law beyond the traditional U.S. and EU approaches, with some BRICS.
Also on the legislation side, Correia is appearing today (Sept. 22) in a Senate committee meeting in part considering changes to the Canada Transportation Act in Division 17 of Part 4 of Bill C-31.
The co-directors paid tribute to the Collins Arsenault Fellowships by the Erin J. C. Arsenault Trust and Arsenault Family Foundation, which aim to “support graduate students engaged in research on the pursuit of peace and security in outer space through law, policy and global governance.” This financial support has made it much easier for IASL to not only support students, but also to apply for grants with matching funding, the co-directors said.