On the common heritage of mankind principle in space

Abstract

The Common Heritage of Mankind (CHM) Principle is a political outcome from the interest game between spacefaring countries and non-spacefaring countries. The space CHM principle per se is an existence of international law and is a historical, dynamic, open and developing one. The CHM principle in the Moon Agreement should be interpreted with a strictly semantic interpretation standard (“no more, no less”) in lex lata. The legal character of the celestial bodies, its natural resources in place and resources abstracted should be defined. The basic elements and connotation of the CHM principle in the Moon Agreement could be drawn from the analysis of the articles about non-appropriation, non-property and international regime for space resources exploitation. In respect of the prospects of the development of space resources exploitation, the paper comparatively analyzed res communes, res publicae, common property and condominium and subsequently propose the due common recognition of the legal concepts and principles of the CHM in space domain.