With the human race extending into space as never before, the question increasingly being posed is “Who has the rights and titles to control bodies in that zone -like Moon or other planets?”However, who owns the Moon or Mars? Space law now boasts a small but highly essential field of learning.The Outer Space Treaty: Pillar of International Space LawThe foundation of modern international space law is the Outer Space Treaty. The United Nations General Assembly to announce its birth as of 1967.
The official title of the treaty Inter-Governmental Organization gives when countries have ratified it and deposited their ratification documents with Secretary-General of United Nations reads: ” Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in Exploration and Use Outer Space including Moon Other Celestial Bodies “.Key principles specified in the treaty are:Non-Appropriation: Recognized in law, an entire absence of national appropriation. Thus, the Moon or its parts are not claimed for national sovereignty, use and occupation by governments. No nation or people has the right to possess a part of the Moon.Peaceful Purposes: Use of outer space should be solely peaceful. The treaty prohibits deployment installations, aircraft with nuclear weapons and any military base or other facility on Moon. It also stipulates that other such bodies of matters must only be used for furtherance peaceful aims whatsoever.International cooperation: This treaty above all else is concerned worldwide co-operation in this field. It enjoins States to inform mankind regarding their scientific findings and technological progress.
The Moon Agreement: A New Approach to a Stubbon Dificulty
The Moon Agreement was drawn up in 1984 as an extension of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space ( second Space Treaty ). It stipulates that both the moon and celestial bodies be placed under “international supervision”– an institution which in practice applies to no more than our planet. Presetly it has not been signed or ratified by many countries. As a result, few participants attend the meeting regularly-both because the Western countries which are active in developing space do not especially like its wording and as the countries of America, Russia and China all have some doubts yet to resolve over their forms of implementation–National Legislation & New Issues in Law During the Course of Recently Arising Marriages
Recently many nations are drafting national space laws 。Developments of this sort include:
United States: The United States has been especially active in this field. Its SPACE Act ( 2015 ) states that resources extracted from asteroids or other heavenly bodies by American companies become the property of those businesses. This definitely puts America ahead in the trend towards privatisation of outer space and encourages investment by private capital into mining planets as well as media coverage showing how lucrative this business might be. This has led China to follow similar footsteps when sovereignty was contested over one planetary body–the Moon.
Luxemburg: Recognizing the wealth possessed by outer space resources in its own territory, this country has been given yet another nickname trend setter in western law. Companies may withdraw and own resources from space. This in perfect harmony with the commercial zeal of its space industry.
While less transparent in its legislative approach towards Outer Space, the Chinese have made huge investments in space technology and exploration. Its policy is not based on the needs of long-term international cooperation so much as it is pragmatic to further their own interests in outer space, leaving out any questions about what those complexities might mean in international law.
Now that private corporations and countries are beginning to develop the Moon and other planets, rumors of contentious legal or ethical questions are already beginning to spread. Its examples would be problems of property right and resource management. So the laws which will govern space have to be conceived differently than if we were simply cloning existing law from the current practices on Earth into space–hundreds (or thousands) of years down the road. The rules of space law today were mostly born out of thought from the 1950s, but they will have to be adapted in order to cope with future technologies and business. (Sullivan 1999)The pressing issue is whether the existing agreements are sufficient, or if we need to expand upon space resources in greater detail still with additional accords?
The international conundrum as viewed by major economies outbound from Earth persons, public firms and government instruments is to create one such world order; rather than set up new nation-states by the sword as happened earlier in history. Profit FROM space must be for the good of all humanity. (Principe 1994)A FutureThe future of space law will probably be a mix of international treaties, regulations by national governments and private contracts. As the people will be exploring and probably colonizing space, it becomes increasingly necessary to create a legal system that will guarantee everyone’s equal access to space resources, ensure peaceful coexistence and still be able to guard the environment for their descendants in thousands of years. In the grand scale of the universe, the Moon and other planets are collective possession. They belong to the public or are all men’s properties. To resolve the way forward on these legal matters, we must approach this journey into outer space with foresight and cooperation so that those far frontiers may become places of shared challenge and opportunity for humanity without exception.