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LEGALITY OF UNILATERAL EXPLOITATION OF SPACE RESOURCES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2017

Jinyuan Su*
Affiliation:
Professor, School of Law, Xi'an Jiaotong University, jinyuan.su@hotmail.com

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a surge of private investment in space resources and the enactment of domestic legislation aimed at protecting property rights over the resources to be extracted. This article argues that the unilateral exploitation of space resources is not prohibited by the principle of non-appropriation and is consistent with the freedom of use for common benefit and interests, with the caveat that it does not exclude others from exploitation or exacerbate inequality among States. It also argues that a laissez-faire approach would be detrimental to the orderly, sustainable and safe exploitation and use of space resources and calls for the establishment of an international regulatory regime consisting of rules concerning international coordination, benefits sharing and environmental protection.

Type
Shorter Articles and Notes
Copyright
Copyright © British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2017 

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References

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3 DSI, for instance, recently announced a plan to fly the world's first commercial interplanetary mining mission. Prospector-1 will fly to and rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid and investigate the object to determine its value as a source of space resources. See Deep Space Industries, ‘Prospector-1: First Commercial Interplanetary Mining Mission’ <http://deepspaceindustries.com/first-commercial-interplanetary-mission/>.

4 U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, H.R. 2262.

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37 Outer Space Treaty, art VI.

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78 UNCLOS, art 116 and Part VII, section 2 in general.

79 UNCLOS, Part XI.

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109 Oduntan (n 14). Tronchetti also held that the extraction and use of extraterrestrial resources for scientific reasons is usually regarded as fully consistent with the terms of space treaties, whereas that for non-scientific purposes is not. See Tronchetti (n 19) 196.

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121 For instance, the U.S. Space Resource Act applies to citizens of the legislating State. U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, sections 51301, 51303.

122 Outer Space Treaty, art IX.

123 Draft Report of the 55th Session of the Legal Subcommittee of the COPUOS (n 21) para 25.

124 Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy (n 8).

125 Draft Report of the 55th Session of the Legal Subcommittee of the COPUOS (n 21) para 27.