Overview on Legal Issues

This paper presents an overview of some of the legal issues pertaining to privacy in rela-tion to high resolution imaging obtained from remote sensing platforms. The technology has given rise to conflicts and uncertainty in many spheres not least being those relating to the identification of individuals and raising privacy concerns. The legal implications of such conflicts and uncertainty can be severe and wide-ranging.
Experts in remote sensing by necessity are responsive and attentive to the rapid pro-gress in technology. Legal practice and the law on the other hand are by design both reactive and slow to evolve. The half century of the so-called Space Age of space explora-tions has been accompanied by developments in international law and cooperation. This is evidenced by the five multilateral treaties and five resolutions and declarations that have been sponsored by the United Nations (UN) and more particularly the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). No other dimension of human activity has been so well shadowed by international coop-eration and legal development (see Historical Background below).