Who owns the Moon? Legal question as billionaires launch into space

[Alidar Jarok]

Re: Who owns the Moon? Legal question as billionaires launch into spa

My best law student guess is that private citizens are not allowed to claim swaths of land on the moon. Only nations are allowed to have soverignity over territory (owning is a different thing), and if they can't claim territory in space their citizens can't either. Legally, at least, since who is supposed to stop them?

That strikes me as about right. However, this just means that there's a tragedy of the commons because, even absent sovereignty, it's still possible to assert ownership and control.

Sorry, I can't quote a written source - I heard that ages ago when the Amis first landed on the moon. Back then it was decided that the moon ought to remain neutral territory and belong to all of mankind together. Rather like Antarctica.

The question remains, though, whether future generations will stick to this agreement. In my experience there are only 2 completely unlimited items in this universe: human stupidity and greed.

The moon has a treaty that distinguishes itself from other areas where Right of European Discovery* gives them a territorial claim. Because of these treaties, no state may claim the moon. But, if a private entity stakes out a share, that isn't necessarily illegal (who would enforce it anyway?).

It's worth pointing out that Antarctica is indeed claimed by many countries with overlapping claims. Right now, there's very little reason to fight to assert their sovereignty, though.

*It's usually called "Right of Discovery," but I decided that didn't really capture it accurately.

 

[clint g]

Re: Who owns the Moon? Legal question as billionaires launch into spa

As I mentioned above, anything you take into space can't be interfered with by any other party, under the terms of the OST. So if you landed on the moon and set up a base, you could just spread chalk, flour, or sand on the area you wanted to claim, call it a reflectivity/albedo experiment, and nobody else would ever be allowed to disturb it, thus making it impossible for them to remove you without violating international (space) law.

That's not how property ownership is supposed to work, but that's what the lawyers came up with to keep the US and USSR from claiming the moon as a missile base.

Thinking about it, setting up a missile base on the moon would have done wonders for space exploration. Oh wells.

 

[JarodRussell]

Re: Who owns the Moon? Legal question as billionaires launch into spa

Forget all of that. Sooner or later, Russia is simply going to annex the Moon if it pleases, and nobody will do anything about it.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Re: Who owns the Moon? Legal question as billionaires launch into spa

Am I the only one thinking of this?

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKIYmOSUu6U[/yt]

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Re: Who owns the Moon? Legal question as billionaires launch into spa

thanks for the clarification, GTurner and Alidar Jarok! To my shame I must admit that I didn't read the whole thread thoroughly but only skimmed over it. No proper scientific behaviour. My only excuse is that atm I am drowning in RL work (hence my long absence). Maybe it's time to learn how to swim..

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Re: Who owns the Moon? Legal question as billionaires launch into spa

To be fair, there's no real answer here. It's not a question that's been directly addressed. I tend to think, should the need arise to address it, it'll be addressed then.