The Development of Outer Space

Interest in outer space property rights has been growing since Congress funded NASA's Project Constellation to enable missions to the Moon and Mars for eventual colonization. Public debate is intensifying over proper ways to incentivize private enterprise in space and under what circumstances title may be acquired over lunar and Martian resources. In the United States, lobbies for the commercial development of space have become increasingly antagonistic toward the international legal regime of outer space, condemning the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and the unratified 1979 Moon Agreement as anti-business. "The Development of Outer Space: Sovereignty and Property Rights in International Space Law" argues that the res communis principle enshrined in the Outer Space Treaty was misrepresented here, with essential help from corporate lobbyists whose real object was the defeat of the Law of the Sea Convention. Thomas Gangale builds the legal case for reviving the moribund Moon Agreement as a prelude to negotiating a second Moon treaty to establish a regulatory regime for the exploitation of extraterrestrial resources. The author's account of the inception and evolution of outer space law to date is deeply informed by his appreciation of such terrestrial considerations as the nation-state system, the contending economic theories of capitalism and communism, and the post-colonial struggle between the developed space-faring nations and the developing earthbound nations. This title features 15 illustrations.