Tournament: Emory | Round: 1 | Opponent: Immaculate Heart AW | Judge: Thornton
Plan / Affirmation
We affirm: The appropriation of outer space by private entities is unjust.
The Outer Space Treaty’s ban on “appropriation” is a legal black hole – private development is undermining the entire treaty regime
Runnels 22 (Michael Runnels – Assistant Professor of Business Law at California State University, Los Angeles, “On Clearing Earth’s Orbital Debris and Enforcing the Outer Space Treaty in the U.S.,” 1-13-22, https://businesslawtoday.org/2022/01/on-clearing-earths-orbital-debris-enforcing-outer-space-treaty-in-us/)
The Outer Space Treaty (“OST”),2 ratified in 1967, is the
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requiring that space-faring companies internalize their orbital debris-creating externalities.
Addressing vagueness and regulating private use of space is key to sustaining the OST
Runnels 22 (Michael Runnels – Assistant Professor of Business Law at California State University, Los Angeles, “On Clearing Earth’s Orbital Debris and Enforcing the Outer Space Treaty in the U.S.,” 1-13-22, https://businesslawtoday.org/2022/01/on-clearing-earths-orbital-debris-enforcing-outer-space-treaty-in-us/)
The international legal regime governing space activities was created at a time when those activities
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, neither the OST nor Liability Convention compellingly disincentivize debris creation in orbit.
FW – Consequentialism / Extinction Outweighs
My standard is maximizing expected well-being.
1 – Consequentialism is necessary to evaluate any ethical theory – specifically, existential risk outweighs under any framework because of the inherent value of current and future generations
Pummer 15 (Theron Pummer – Junior Research Fellow in Philosophy at St. Anne's College, University of Oxford, “Moral Agreement on Saving the World,” 5-18-15, http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2015/05/moral-agreement-on-saving-the-world/)
There appears to be lot of disagreement in moral philosophy. Whether these many apparent
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be acting very wrongly.” (From chapter 36 of On What Matters)
2 – Death precludes any other ethical framework – right action is constrained by our ability to live and death destroys the subject in its entirety
3 – Actor Specificity – governments act on the aggregate of their citizens – they must be consequentialists because every action benefits some and harms others
Pleasure and pain are the starting point for moral reasoning – they’re our baseline desires and the only things that explain the intrinsic value of objects or actions
Moen 16 Ole Martin Moen, Professor of Ethics at Oslo Metropolitan University, “An Argument for Hedonism,” 2016, The Journal of Value Inquiry, Vol. 50, pp. 267-281, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10790-015-9506-9
Let us start by observing, empirically, that a widely shared judgment about intrinsic
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places where we reach the end of the line in matters of value.
Advantage – Debris
Debris cascades will render space unusable – private appropriation is exponentially increasing the risks
Runnels 22 (Michael Runnels – Assistant Professor of Business Law at California State University, Los Angeles, “On Clearing Earth’s Orbital Debris and Enforcing the Outer Space Treaty in the U.S.,” 1-13-22, https://businesslawtoday.org/2022/01/on-clearing-earths-orbital-debris-enforcing-outer-space-treaty-in-us/)
Currently, long-dead satellites, spent rocket stages, and other debris from
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some point, you are likely to make a wrong decision.47
Increased regulation under the OST solves debris – now is key
Shah 20 (Sachin Shah – Bachelor’s Student of Business at Cornell, “The International Legal Regulation of Space Debris,” Cornell Undergraduate Law and Society Review, 8-30-20, https://www.culsr.org/articles/the-international-legal-regulation-of-space-debris)
In this article, I have demonstrated that the existing laws and regulations pertaining to
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action can accomplish these goals, but lack thereof may result in disaster.
Debris cascades ensure military accidents that spark armed conflict
Orwig 16 (Jessica Orwig – Business Insider, quoting Vitaly Adushkin – researcher for the Institute of Geosphere Dynamics at the Russian Academy of Sciences, “Russia says a growing problem in space could be enough to spark a war,” 1-26-16, https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-says-space-junk-could-spark-war-2016-1)
NASA has already warned that the large amount of space junk around our planet is
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And this cloud of junk could eventually make missions to space too dangerous.
Military accidents in space go nuclear
Beauchamp 14 (Zack Beachamp – Vox, “How space trash could start a nuclear war,” 4-21-14, https://www.vox.com/2014/4/21/5625246/space-war-china-north-korea-iran)
If debris from a Chinese test destroys a US military satellite, the US could
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the economy and scientific research, even preparation for space war becomes deadly.
Independently, satellites are key to critical infrastructure and social stability
Pellegrino and Stang 16 (Massimo Pellegrino – Master’s Degree in Space Studies from ISU, and Gerald Stang – Senior Associate Analyst at the EUISS, holds BSc and MSc degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan and an MA in international affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, “Space Security for Europe”, EU Institute for Security Studies, July 2016, https://www.iss.europa.eu/content/space-security-europe)
Modern societies are highly dependent on the continuous operation of critical infrastructure to ensure the
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space systems need to be adequately protected and the space environment properly managed.
Advantage – I-Law
Private appropriation of space violates international law and is driving an arms race – competition will lead to conflict escalation unless states shift to comply with the spirit of the Outer Space Treaty
Delgado-Perez 20 (Veronica Delgado-Perez – Staff Writer at The International Scholar, Master’s degree in Public International Law from Utrecht University, “Commercialization of Space Risks Launching a Militarized Space Race,” 12-14-20, https://www.theintlscholar.com/periodical/12/14/2020/analysis-commercialization-space-risk-international-law-military-space-race)
On April 6, 2020, U.S. former President Donald Trump announced
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float in an unstable legal vacuum which threatens to implode in geopolitical competition.
Strengthening the OST is key to broader international cooperation and international law
Matlou 18 (Icho Kealotswe Matlou – independent legal and policy expert in space law, advocate of the High Courts of Botswana and a consultant at Kealotswe Legal Consulting in Pretoria, “THE RULE OF LAW IN OUTER SPACE- A Call for International Cooperation,” March 2018, https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/7811-kealotswethe-rule-of-law-in-outer-spacepdf)
Preventing outer space from becoming an arena of conflict is essential for strengthening strategic stability
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together with Principles5 adopted by the General Assembly have resulted from this exercise.
Strengthening international law is necessary to address multiple transnational and existential threats
Nagan 14 (Winston P. Nagan – Emeritus Professor, Institute for Human Rights, Peace and Development, University of Florida, “The Crisis of the Existing Global Paradigm of Governance and Political Economy,” Cadmus 2(2), 4-20-14,
http://cadmusjournal.org/article/volume-2/issue-2-part-1/crisis-existing-global-paradigm-governance-and-political-economy)
This article seeks to underline the central challenges to world order that are outcomes of
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law, as an indispensable element for a new paradigm of global governance.
Specifically, OST cooperation is key to effective management of weaponization in space
Matlou 18 (Icho Kealotswe Matlou – independent legal and policy expert in space law, advocate of the High Courts of Botswana and a consultant at Kealotswe Legal Consulting in Pretoria, “THE RULE OF LAW IN OUTER SPACE- A Call for International Cooperation,” March 2018, https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/7811-kealotswethe-rule-of-law-in-outer-spacepdf)
States consider multilateral treaties as vitally important tools for promoting international relations in which justice
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and utilization are not undertaken purely in the interests of the industrialized countries.
Unchecked space militarization goes nuclear
Tisdall 20 (Simon Tisdall – The Guardian, “A nuclear arms race in space? It seems we've learned nothing from Hiroshima,” 8-2-20, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/02/a-nuclear-arms-race-in-space-it-seems-weve-learned-nothing-from-hiroshima)
Russia’s apparent test-firing of an anti-satellite weapon in outer space on
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, the US-Israel-Iran conflict, North Korea and Ukraine.