Introducing the Dubai International Financial Centre's Courts of Space
Created in 2021, the Courts of Space offers legal dispute resolution resources for UAE space companies.
Middle East Space Monitor is the Media partner to the DIFC Courts of Space (CoS) Moot Court Competition launching in May 2024.
DIFC Courts’ Courts of Space
In 2021, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts and the Dubai Future Foundation embarked on a new Courts of the Future initiative, activating Courts of Space. The launch of the project signals to the international space community the intent of the UAE to play a leading role in advancing its judicial systems to specifically direct capacity and capability to commercial space-related disputes, inviting businesses to ‘opt-in’ to the jurisdiction of the DIFC Courts for transparent and speedy dispute resolution.
While space law is nothing new, an important next step for the Courts of Space initiative will be for the DIFC Courts to develop and establish its worth as a commercial go-to court for these matters.
As humanity’s use of space expands, and the space economy with it, to Earth’s orbits, the Moon, and beyond, commercial companies will be front and centre in driving growth and creating critical space infrastructure. A number of these companies will be headquartered in the UAE - one of the world’s most dynamic space powers. All of this will entail more launches, more people, and more “stuff” in space – in Earth’s orbit and beyond. It will also entail more legal disputes and the need for innovative legal solutions.
In space, there is a lot that can go wrong. Complex commercial agreements within this industry will also require an equally innovative judicial system to keep pace, offering assurance and certainty to support and protect businesses.
Courts of Space is a recognition that science and space exploration will throw all sorts of new challenges towards our legal systems and that anticipating and preparing for them is preferable to reacting in hindsight.
Background
Established in 2004, the DIFC Courts is Dubai’s English language common law judicial system and forms a key part of the legal system of the UAE. It was established with the specific objective to enable the international community in the UAE to have greater confidence in the Emirate’s legal framework and to further strengthen investment and trade relations with the UAE.
In 2017, the Courts of the Future was launched by the DIFC Courts and the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) with a mandate to explore diverse legal technology topic areas and to provide research and thought leadership on promoting and encouraging contemporary methods of greater accessibility and efficiency to court users across the globe.
This think tank has enabled the DIFC Courts to streamline its major legal tech projects under the Courts of the Future, pooling talent and resources from global partners and experts across the fields of law, technology, IT, and business, assembled to help legal systems accommodate the accelerating growth of technology. These efforts led to the creation of the Courts of Space in 2021.
Objectives
DIFC’s Courts of Space has the following objectives:
Creation of an international working group of public and private sector bodies and experts tasked with exploring space-related legal innovations and providing an outlook on potential outcomes of scenarios revolving around space-related disputes;
Exploration of Space Disputes Guides, encompassing a set of guidelines to support such space-related disputes;
Training of judges to become space-related dispute experts after having received courses on space regulations from international bodies and regional agencies.
The Courts of Space is a global initiative that will operate in parallel to developments in space activities and the growth of the space economy, helping to build a new judicial support network to serve the stringent commercial demands of international space exploration in the 21st century.
Resources
The Courts of Space has produced a detailed legal guide, the Space Disputes Guide (Second edition, February 2023) can be read here.