Identifying common legal issues in internaional cooperation mechanisms

The Legal Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) adopted a five-year workplan titled "Review of the International Mechanisms for Cooperation in the Peaceful Exploration and Use of Outer Space" in the 2012 session. This agenda item aims at adopting a set of conclusions which identify common legal issues, principles and procedures addressed in a range of cooperative mechanisms, thus being helpful to choose mechanisms to facilitate future cooperative projects and endeavours. A questionnaire with the view to collecting examples of international mechanism from Member States was adopted in the working group of this agenda item in the second and 2014 session. Likewise, approximately twenty States and relevant international organizations already submitted their respective categorization of international mechanisms to the legal Subcommittee. In line with such progress, this article will explore and try to identify more preferable, critical and indispensable conditions and provisions in a various type of international collaborative programmes, keeping in mind that such criteria could be different according to the type of collaboration and should have a future-oriented practical value.