The use of unambiguous and precise terminology grounded in standardized concepts and a common regulatory language underpins the effectiveness of national legal provisions.
In contrast to national legal systems, international instruments are drafted in several languages using abstract terminology that is unique to the space industry, as most of the terms have no equivalents in other areas of law. Within the paradigm of space law, these aspects constitute the Achilles’ heel of the field and represent one of the key challenges to the effective application of legal provisions.
This inefficiency may be attributed to the peculiarities of the development of space terminology, which has evolved not through natural and empirical scientific processes, but through diplomatic initiatives and political agreements, further complicated by cross-national linguistic, cognitive, and cultural differences. Consequently, these circumstances have resulted in the abstractness, inconsistency, and incompatibility of the prevailing concepts of space law.
Adding to the problem is the fact that the corpus of space law terminology was primarily formulated by states, as subjects of international law, pursuing divergent objectives in space activities without an exclusive authority in space. At the same time, states attempted to establish a cohesive and abstract terminology applicable to the entirety of outer space and to all forms of space activity.
Ultimately, the conceptual ambiguity of terminology has contributed to the ineffectiveness of the international regulation of space activities, while many regulatory provisions have acquired a quasi-voluntary character.
Against this background, the present study focuses on identifying solutions for the development of an adaptive, universal, coherent, and precisely formulated terminology of space law and space activities.