Commercial parties offering space travel, space waste, claiming the moon, potentially exploiting resources ... It’s going to get busy in space in the coming years. But there are no clear agreements about this. Tanja Masson-Zwaan, Assistant Professor of Space Law, talked about the topic in Spraakmakers…

The moon exerts a pull on us. The Americans won the space race and were first to land there. In the Universiteit van Nederland, space law expert Tanja Masson explores the questions that this raises. Who owns the moon and the valuable resources that are found there?

For years now, collaboration has been the operative word when it comes to successful space missions. But this can only be achieved with good agreements.

This week an article was published in the American popular science magazine Scientific American on the uncertainty surrounding the extent to which territory can be claimed on the moon.

Tanja Masson-Zwaan, an assistant professor at the Institute of Air and Space Law, spoke on Friday 14 April about space mining on BBC Radio.

Satellites belonging to American space company SpaceX recently came very close to a Chinese space station. Experts are calling for traffic management rules in space.

The European Space Agency (ESA) introduces the members of the European Center for Space Law (ECSL) on its website through interviews with its members. One of those members is Tanja Masson-Zwaan.

NASA is offering to buy lunar samples collected by companies for a token sum primarily to set a precedent for space resource rights on the moon. However, there is not international consensus on the U.S. position on the rights to extracted resources.

During a working visit to a company that cleans up space debris, the British Prince Charles suggested that a climate agreement specifically for space might be a good idea. Experts, including Leiden Law School’s Tanja Masson-Zwaan, say the idea is wishful thinking.

“Het is niet genoeg dat Amerika aanwezig is in de ruimte. Amerika moet domineren”, zegt Donald Trump tijdens een bijeenkomst met de Nationale Ruimteraad. Zodoende wil hij naast de land-, zee-, en luchtmacht een nieuwe militaire kracht oprichten: de Space Force. Ruimterecht deskundige Tanja Masson denkt…

Tanja heeft zich sedert 1985 met haar bijzondere en veelzijdige talenten ingezet voor het opbouwen van het internationaal Instituut voor Lucht- en Ruimterecht, waarvan zij vanaf de oprichting codirecteur is.

It has been a coming and going of satellites and spaceships near the moon. It has not been this busy in years. There are currently more than ten moon missions in progress and another five are being scheduled for next year.

During the second episode of this Leiden Law podcast, hosts Juli Wentholt and Ishana Badhai will talk with Tanja Masson-Zwaan about the latest developments in Space Law.

Hoogleraar Internationaal Belastingrecht Tanja Bender heeft een vermelding gekregen in het boek Recognising 100 Years of Women in Tax.

Assistant Professor Space Law Tanja Masson-Zwaan appeared as a guest on the Radio Weetlust programme of local Leiden radio station Sleutelstad FM. She talked about, among other things, who does the moon actually belong to and why we all would like to go there so badly.

Space travel has long since progressed from being just about rockets, travelling to the moon, and Russia and America. The Netherlands has its own Space Agency and one of its important tasks is collecting and making available increasingly advanced satellite data.

Various countries are planning new missions to the Moon. Not just for prestige and science, but also to extract raw materials.

Wereldwijd worden veel samenwerkingsverbanden met Rusland stopgezet vanwege de oorlog in Oekraïne. Hoe zit dat met de ruimtevaart, waar de Russen ook een groot aandeel in hebben?

Space is of enormous strategic value. Having rules in space therefore is to everyone’s advantage.

Tanja Masson-Zwaan and Dimitra Stefoudi of the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) in Leiden, along with two others, co-edited the book ‘Building Blocks for the Development of an International Framework for the Governance of Space Resource Activities. A Commentary’.

Dr Tanja Masson-Zwaan, assistant professor at the International Institute of Air and Space Law, recently visited four universities and a research institute in China. During her visit to Wuhan University, Masson-Zwaan was appointed as an adjunct professor. She was handed a certificate by Professor Xiao…

Space is becoming increasingly busier due to the launching of satellites and tourists. But no binding international agreements have been made since 1979. This is problematic, warns space lawyer Tanja Masson-Zwaan. ‘Everyone’s putting their own interests first.’

Two book launches

This special issue of the Journal of European Policy presents results from the research on the European Union Enlargement and its Integration Capacity. The Journal of European Public Policy is one of the leading journals in this field.

The Una Europa Clusters bring together leading experts and experienced staff from numerous academic and professional service departments across the Una Europa institutions.

Linguistic research on a unique collection of Dutch letters allowed us to gain access to the every-day language of people from various walks of life. Private letters by men, women and even children have been elaborately explored in the Letters as Loot researchprogramme, initiated and directed by prof.…

The International Institute of Air and Space Law is one of the leading international academic research and teaching institutes in the world, specialising in legal and policy issues regarding aviation and space activities in the broadest sense of the word.

Each month, we will interview a student or staff member from Leiden University about their work or studies in relation to sustainability.

All children deserve a promising start. Most children are doing fine. But some need extra support, because of problems during pregnancy or because they grow up in disadvantaged circumstances, e.g. due to poverty, parental addictions or psychological problems.

How did common people write in the late eighteenth century? Little is yet known on this topic, since our knowledge is mainly based on printed texts written by a small part of the (male) elite population. This dissertation – written from a sociolinguistic point of view – gives us new insights into late-…

Sound & Score brings together music expertise from prominent international researchers and performers exploring the intimate relations between sound, score and notation, and the artistic possibilities that this relationship yields for performers, composers and listeners.

This dissertation provides a novel perspective on the interaction between quantifier scope and ellipsis. It presents a detailed investigation of the scopal interaction between English negative indefinites, modals, and quantified phrases in ellipsis. One of the crucial observations is that a negative…

The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) that took place last week in Paris was extremely successful for IIASL.

Welcome to your starting point for collaboration with the Leiden Learning & Innovation Centre. Whether you're part of Leiden University or an external organization, this page will direct you to the right pages and contacts, ensuring a smooth beginning to our collaboration.

We are launching more and more satellites and space is filling up as a result. Currently around 100 million pieces of space debris are floating around Earth. So who’s going to clear it up?

On Thursday 24 May 2018, Tanja Masson-Zwaan of Leiden University’s International Institute of Air and Space Law and Prof Mahulena Hofmann of the University of Luxembourg had the honour of addressing the King and Queen of the Netherlands and the Grand-Duc and Grand-Duchess of Luxembourg during the State…

On 1 November 2019, the annual awards of the NLF (Nederlands Lucht- en Ruimtevaartfonds) were presented at a Gala Dinner at the Hotel van Oranje in Noordwijk.

Russia recently blew up a defect satellite. As a result, the amount of space debris in Earth orbit has increased.

You can hardly avoid it if you want to quickly implement satellite internet. Elon Musk's company Starlink is

The United Arab Emirates has announced that it is to open a so-called ‘Space Court’ which will operate as an arbitral tribunal for space-related disputes.

The first fine for space debris has been issued. An American company that had failed to clean up its space junk has been fined $150.000.

From a billionaires’ space race to the launch of tens of thousands of minisatellites: space is becoming busier than ever. This means more than enough work for Tanja Masson-Swaan, an assistant professor at the Institute of Air and Space Law at Leiden University. Because who makes the rules and makes…

Recent graduates of the Adv. LL.M. in Air and Space Law presented their paper titled