The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) has urged students who are interested in studying law to explore space law.
Director-General of NASRDA, Dr Halilu Shaba, gave the advice on Thursday at the Nigerian National Round of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition in Abuja.
The competition was organised by NASRDA in collaboration with International Institute of Space Law.
Shaba said that lots of people were becoming more aware of the space sector and as well delving their studies into its areas of specification, hence the need for regulating the sector.
“Now a lot of people are coming into the space arena. So, the space has to be regulated which we need the lawyers to be part of it.
“We have the Science and Engineering aspect, we also need the technical component which is the lawyers that are supposed to look at space law to regulate the activities.
“We keep saying that space is for everyone, and if everybody is coming to space, somebody must guide the arena and we need to develop space lawyers.
“You must develop them to a certain extent, and we collaborate with most universities to teach space law, to catch them young and groom interest in this area,’’ Shaba said.
He recalled that during the 2023 edition of the global competition, Nigeria represented the continent and emerged second position after China, which was a great achievement.
“We are lucky that today we have the largest formation of space lawyers on the continent, so we have to show this because we merit it.
“Nigeria has done so well in training lawyers because this is an area where you find few actors.’’
Mr Isa Yahaya, Acting-Director, Legal and Space Regulation Services of the agency, said the competition was designed to derive the memorial writing skills and advocacy skills of the competitors.
Yahaya added that NASRDA had the mandate to develop the best initiatives in the area of space, science and technology, which includes space law, practice and management.
“This segment is of space law, is taking it from the angle of the practitioners to catch them young targeted at Nigerian universities.
“In the space arena and in the continent, we are new to this experience, so we need to build critical mass of intellectuals who can compete in any part of the globe,’’ he said.
He said some of the schools participating in the competition included, Universities of Lagos, Benin, Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo university, among others.
The Acting director said that no Nigerian universities offered Space Law independently, adding that a few of them had to specialise in either Europe, Canada or America.
He added that the agency had diverse Memorandum of Understandings with Nigerian universities to teach space law as modular courses as part of creating awareness.
Yahaya said that winners of the national round of the competition would represent Nigeria at the continental level, while winners at that stage would go to the global level.
“We hope to win at the continent level to gain a spot for the global competition, because we are aiming for the first position.
Mr Mujahid Indabawa, Chairman, Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the competition, said space law was an aspect of International Law which guides practice in the space sector.
“Space law regulates the practice of space from the stage of procuring a satellite, to launch and operate the satellite. It gives you the guidelines.’’
He said that space law, as an emerging aspect of law, required the government to include it in schools’ curricula or as modules for more awareness.
Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition is a space law moot competition organised by the International Institute of Space Law.
The competition is named after Manfred Lachs, a former judge of the International Court of Justice.(NAN)
By Ijeoma Olorunfemi
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