Volume 53
Issue
3
Date
2022

Governance of Space Resources Activities: in the Wake of the Artemis Accords

by Yutaka Osada

This Article consists of three body Sections. Section II deals with the detailed examination of the whole picture of the Artemis Accords of 2020 in light of the existing U.N. space-related treaties and resolutions. Section III analyzes the legal issues arising from space resources activities in depth. In Section III, we focus on the interpretation of the “non-appropriation” principle as provided in Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty and the relevant provisions of the Moon Agreement with reference to each of their drafting histories. As a result, we emphasize therein that a whole range of legal issues triggered by the space resources activities cannot be reduced to the question of whether they are legal or illegal under existing international space law, but the problem of determining whether such activities can satisfy “substantial reasonableness of their conse-quence.” In other words, it is the prevention from adverse ramifications of such activities that counts. In Section IV, we observe the ongoing discussions at the Legal Sub-Committee of the UNCOPUOS and examine the domestic laws of the United States, Luxembourg, the U.A.E., and Japan as well as academic recommendations, including the Hague Building Blocks, the Vancouver Recommendations, and inputs from civil society, in the context of space governance. Finally, we conclude that it depends on two things to produce a multi-national framework of any form, irrespective of its legally binding force: first, the values and wisdoms of the stakeholders about outer space per se, and second, the political momentum playing out at the relevant forum whether the Artemis Accords as a bottom-up approach can take hold in the international community or the debate taking place at the UNCOPUOS.

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