“Common heritage of man Kind” – property rights, in the wake of commercial use of the moon and other celestial bodies
- Paper number
IAC-05-E6.4.02
- Author
Mr. Sethu Nandakumar Menon, University of Paris XI, France
- Year
2005
- Abstract
In the new generation of space era, there is a tremendous increase in private and commercial involvement in all areas of space activities. This is unlike the last 5 decades where space activities where predominantly carried out by the state organisations. All the major space treaties and principles where adopted before the onslaught of this commercial sector. Hence, there is a need to redefine or elucidate some of the rights and duties under these treaties and principles in relation to the commercial players. The exploration of the moon and other celestial bodies will further more complicate the already complicated concept of commercial use of outer space. The paper will be exploring the magnitude of the concept of “common heritage of mankind” explained in 1979 Moon Agreement, which allows the use of outer space for the benefit of humankind. The paper will be looking into the important factor of the limited number of country parties to the Moon agreement and will also explore the possibility of considering the different provision of it under customary international law. The paper will further look into sub articles of Article XI and other articles of the Moon Agreement to see how the international regime will be moving forward to explore the outer-space resources with the current international legal regime in place. This study will also look into the Outer Space Treaty and more specifically the common benefit clause and the scope and implication of article VI, in the light of the present commercial space activities. The work will further discuss the right to property in moon and other celestial bodies in the present scenario. The paper will conclude with an examination of the possible interpretations with the current international legal regime on the property right in outer space and with a note of the need of more international legal collaboration in this frontier.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-E6.4.02.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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