What happens if astronauts from different countries get into a fight on the International Space Station?
… Space law is based on the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 … It has been ratified by 98 states. Following the tradition of maritime law, the treaty recognises that states have legal jurisdiction within spacecraft registered to them. … The space station posed new legal problems as it is being assembled from modules supplied by the United States, Russia and Japan as well as the European Space Agency. The partners rejected an initial proposal that US law should prevail throughout the space station. “It was agreed that each state registers its own separate elements, which means that you now have a piece of the US annexed to a piece of Europe annexed to a piece of Japan in outer space, legally speaking.” … What if one astronaut gets into a fight with another? “They decided that if somebody performs an activity which may be considered criminal, it is in the first instance his own country which is able to exercise jurisdiction.” … Another solution was found for patent law. An invention
