Recently, on a business trip to the South of China, I had the pleasure of being able to watch The Martian on the plane. During the movie various treaties and laws governing space were mentioned. As a lawyer this piqued my curiosity. So, when I got back to the office, I started to read a bit more on the topic.
This is a very brief glimpse of what I have learned.
Space law covers both the national laws of different countries and also international laws. I won’t be looking at national laws today because there are so many countries and I lack the time.
There are 5 major international treaties which have been adopted to varying degrees by different countries. They are:
- The 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
- The 1968 Rescue Agreement.
- The Liability Convention.
- The 1975 Registration Convention.
- The 1979 Moon Treaty.
There is also a Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Uses of Outer Space (1963). Interestingly this states that:
- No one nation may claim ownership of outer space or any celestial body… Objects launched into space are subject to their nation of belonging, including people.
The above makes me wonder three things:
- Can corporations claim celestial bodies?
- Can state owned enterprises claim celestial bodies?
-
If an entity launched a ‘vessel’ which landed on Mars, would they become
De Facto
owners of the land underneath?
Anyway, moving on. As I said, this is not intended to be an in depth article on the issue. I found a website written by M. Listner. Here is an extract from his site spacethoughtsblog.wordpress.com/ about the movie and the legal issues it presents.
Watney: There’s an international treaty saying no country can lay claim to anything that’s not on Earth.
CORRECT: Article II of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 states:
Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.
Watney is essentially correct…
Watney: And by another treaty, if you’re not in any country’s territory, maritime law applies. So Mars is “international waters.
INCORRECT: First, there is no “other treaty” that expresses the principle “if you’re not in any country’s territory, maritime law applies.” The principle Watney incorrectly expressed is the customary rule of free access and passage through outer space. Significantly, this international norm was not created by a formal treaty like the Outer Space Treaty or its progeny but through customary international law…
As a Star Trek, Star Wars, Star Gate, ….etc fan this area of law has caught my imagination and I’ll be looking into it more, whilst thinking of things like asteroid mining, space pirates and space lawyers.
By Chris Fung.