The Financing of Space Assets Vis-à-Vis the Cape Town Convention's Space Protocol Through an African Lens: The Relevance of the Space Protocol in Africa's Space Future

Abstract

Acknowledged as the “Most commercially beneficial international treaty negotiated in the modern era,” this work relates to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (hereinafter the Cape Town Convention), which creates international standards for the registration of contracts of sale involving movable properties of high value. By extending the various legal remedies contained in the convention to the space industry since 2012, the work specifically analyzes the scope of the convention and its allied space assets protocol as it applies to the African space sector, particularly NewSpace.

Against this backdrop, the article is divided into 3 parts. Part I serves as an introduction to the Cape Town Convention and its space assets protocol by briefly describing the preparation process undergone to complete these instruments. The chapter further describes the main purpose of these instruments as well as their 5 basic objects. To reveal the truly unique provisions of the space assets protocol and its interrelation within Africa, the chapter unfolds the nature of and relationship between the Cape Town Convention and the space assets protocol.

Having introduced the convention and its space assets protocol in Part I, Part II specifically focuses on the source of financing space activities in Africa vis-à-vis the insolvency-related provisions contained in the protocol by indicating the need for the inclusion of these provisions in financing agreements. The aim of this is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the sociopolitical environment of the African space industry and the associated current challenges to funding in regard to commercial and private space entrepreneurs. With regard to the range of insolvency-related remedies available to a creditor, the work analyzes Article XXI of the protocol as well as the manner in which contracting States must elect the insolvency-related remedies they wish to apply to insolvency proceedings.

Part III takes insights drawn from the previous chapters to construct possibilities by proffering recommendations on the target areas of the protocol, which African States can adopt into their national space legislations or policies in the pursuit of ease of funding. Consequently, the work is unable to assure the willingness of African States to ratify the space assets protocol to the convention; however, upon analyzing the protocol, the article suggests the ratification of same by African States as one of the panaceas to promoting a financially stable environment for NewSpace. The conclusion gives an overview of how to incorporate these possibilities and the steps to apply the space assets protocol toward overcoming financing challenges in African States.