National Space Laws and the Exploitation of Natural Resources from Space

Abstract

It is usually assumed that national law, related to space activities or any other subject, will be consistent with international treaties. This is the case since once a treaty is formally adopted, it is considered to be the highest form of national law. There can be cases where there is ambiguity in the phrasing of international law and treaties as well as in national law where it is not clear what the requirements and scopes actually are. Many countries around the world have now developed national space laws, and there has not been a formal determination if those national space laws might contravene the Outer Space Treaty or any of the other international space agreements. In particular, the U. S. Space Act of 2015 that is discussed in this chapter raises new questions about how space mining might be conducted, who might profit from this activity, and how possible conflicts between national space law and international space law might be resolved. In addition, this chapter discusses national space laws of the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, Australia, Canada and India, primarily to assess their adequacy to govern natural resource explorations and exploitations in space.