Moonwalkers or Moondreamers?
- Paper number
IAC-10,E7,1,20,x6399
- Author
Dr. Fiammetta Borgia, Italy
- Year
2010
- Abstract
The Moon Agreement, entered into force in July 1984, reaffirms and elaborates on many of the provisions of the Outer Space Treaty as applied to the Moon and other celestial bodies, providing that those bodies should be used exclusively for peaceful purposes, that their environments should not be disrupted, that the United Nations should be informed of the location and purpose of any station established on those bodies. Article 2 of the Agreement on the Moon states that all activities on the moon, including its exploration and use, shall be carried out in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and taking into account the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation Among States. The main problem caused by this treaty pertains to definition of the Moon, with regard to exploitation and use of resources, as the “Common Heritage of Mankind”. Such claims have been asserted in both international law and in the UN, where Third World nations often argue that the benefits derived from outer-space commerce are to be equally distributed to all nations. The ethical issues arise when profits are earned by these businesses and supporters of the "common heritage of mankind" principle demand distribution of the benefits and profits from commercial lunar development. Paragraph 3 of Article 9 provides that “neither the surface nor the subsurface of the Moon, nor any part thereof or natural resources in place, shall become the property of any state, international intergovernmental or non-governmental organization, national organization or non-governmental entity or of any natural person.” For some authors, without property rights, economic development of the Moon would be frustrated, unless it were conducted by the special monopolistic regime that the treaty contemplates in Article 11. Although the Moon Treaty itself provides little guidance on what these terms mean, the very similar Law of the Sea Treaty interprets them to involve the creation of an international authority to govern or conduct all resource extraction that would discourage the development of Lunar resources. The paper will discuss these problems with regard of two different perspectives: a pacific perspective aiming to avoid any type of resources exploitation and the different point of view aiming to regulate any future commercial developments.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)