Abstract

The 1986 United Nations Principles on Remote Sensing represent a fundamental tool within the international legal regime governing space activities. Indeed, they provide a set of non-binding provisions to guide States willing to conduct remote sensing activities. The paper considers these Principles in light of the dual-use nature of remote sensing technology and products, as well as given the “democratisation” of the use of Earth observation data. Nowadays, remote sensing satellites are operated in many civil, commercial and military applications. In this context, it is necessary to examine the scope of the Principles in order to figure out whether the current legal framework is appropriate, in particular given the dual-use nature of satellite imagery. In addition, some legal issues arise with regard to access to and processing of data which are generated by the private sector for governmental and military uses. In fact, it is now possible to extract military information from commercial and civil Earth observation programmes. So far, the Principles have continued to prove their value and usefulness. However, they do not have been reviewed, especially as regards the technological development of space systems and the evolution of data distribution. Lastly, the paper aims to analyse the Principles by taking into account the rule of access to EO data without discrimination but nevertheless limited for national security reasons.