An asteroid is about to fall on Earth, one country manages to deflect it and it hits another country, the judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague will discuss the consequences of such a scenario as part of the International Astronautical Union Conference.
For the first time, three of the judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague will come to Israel, for a completely different purpose. To participate in the World Space Conference of the International Astronautical Association hosted by the Israel Space Agency at the Ministry of Science this October.
The judges who will visit Israel are the Slovakian judge Petar Tomka, who also served as president of the court between 2015-2012, the Russian judge Kirill Geborgian and the Indian judge Deliver Bandari. The three, who are considered legal elites in their country, will arrive in Israel to conduct a staged international space trial within the framework of the World Space Convention.
The staged trial event will be opened by the Deputy President of the Supreme Court, Justice Eliakim Rubinstein, followed by the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University, Prof. Tomer Brody. During the trial, four teams of students from law schools around the world will compete in a staged trial on an imaginary issue of an unusual legal-scientific nature: a huge asteroid that was about to hit the Earth was deflected and due to the deflection, the blast waves hit another country and cause damage and losses. After the damage, the different countries are divided regarding the payment of the damages and the responsibility for the issue. The issue was compiled by researchers and senior legal professionals from around the world and the students research the issue throughout the year. The semi-final phase in which the students will argue before the judges from the International Court will be held at the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University and the final phase will be held at the space gathering on October 15 in front of an audience of hundreds of representatives and executives from the space field.
The teams were selected after a similar preliminary competition held in four different regions of the world - USA, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa - in which sixty law schools participated and one team was selected from each region. The law schools that advanced to the semi-finals to be held in Israel this year come from Nigeria, India, Greece and the USA, of which two will advance to the finals. The annual competition is held for the 24th year by the International Organization of Space Law (IISL) as part of the World Space Convention and is considered particularly prestigious. The organization, which also participates in the United Nations Office for Space Affairs, has representative members from forty countries in the world, experts in space law.
In addition, a special session will be held at the conference where the latest and hot research in the field of space law will be presented, such as traffic laws and their management in space, legal aspects of mining resources from space, of the space station that China is building, the launch of civilian space tourism, the consequences of people disappearing in space, and more.
The staged trial will take place as part of the World Space Convention hosted this year by the Israel Space Agency at the Ministry of Science. The event, for which registration is already underway, will be attended by approximately 3,000 scientists, heads of space agencies and industrialists in the field of space from around the world. The convention, which will be held at the Nation Buildings in Jerusalem, will be produced by the Paragon company and is expected to attract a lot of tourism to Israel, including about thirty symposia, including about 2,000 lectures by representatives from seventy countries, as well as a huge space exhibition of exhibits from all over the world. The gathering will highlight the uniqueness of space occupation in Israel.
Petar Tomka, who served before his term as a Slovak diplomat, was first elected to serve on the International Court in 2003. From 2009 he served as vice president of the court and from 2012 until last February he served as president of the court. In 2012, his term as a member of the court was also extended for another term of nine years. Tomka is considered an expert in international law and international relations.
Deloire Bhandari is a member of the International Court of Justice and was a judge of the Indian Supreme Court. In 2013, he received from the President of India himself an honorary Doctor of Laws degree for his contribution to social equality and human rights, subjects in which he is considered an expert and which he promoted during his years in academia.
Kirill Geborgian is a Russian judge and diplomat who served in several diplomatic positions and representations before his term as a judge. For example, he served as Russia's ambassador to the Netherlands, represented Russia at the tribunal that examined the implementation of the International Convention for the Prevention of Racism, served as deputy head of the Russian delegation for talks regarding the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. His main legal expertise concerns human rights, international laws and international treaties and agreements.
This will be the first visit of the judges of the International Court to Israel. This after in 2013 the last meeting of the judges of the court was held with a senior Israeli figure - former president Shimon Peres. In September of the same year, then-President Shimon Peres spoke before the judges of the court and expressed himself on a series of topics, including the Iranian threat and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Judge Tomka, who will come to Israel and at the time also served as the president of the court, told Peres on behalf of the court: "Relations with Israel are very important to us. Israel has contributed greatly to the development of international law. The United Nations, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel, led to the fulfillment of the vision of Jews for generations to live in their own country, in its decision to establish a Jewish state alongside an Arab state."
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I wonder what the verdicts were in the other four similar competitions that were held, and whether they can influence the decision-making in the current trial.
By the way, there is a similar and much less imaginary situation (which has almost happened several times already) where a satellite or spacecraft belonging to a certain country falls back to Earth and crashes on a residential building or in a crowded place, sometimes there are also radioactive substances in the spacecraft that may spread in the area.
Instead of working to bring all kinds of international criminals to justice, and of course teasing the State of Israel for "war crimes",
They (the judges) are preparing for an extremely rare and unreliable scenario.
After all, if you are already planning to blow up the battle meteorite to the earth, then already do the job to the end. (Probably the developers of the weapon that will be damaged will make sure that there are hardly any residues large enough to cause significant damage).