Who Owns the Moon?

From Space.com via Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081210/sc_space/whoownsthemoon

Laws tend to build on precedent. Since there's little precedent for lunar laws, some look to the sea for suggestions. That is, the use of ocean floor minerals beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Such valuable resources are designated by some as a Common Heritage of mankind, not subject to national appropriation.

Could the Common Heritage concept work as the basis for a Moon Treaty?

Virgiliu Pop is a research specialist at the Romanian Space Agency. He has for years been keeping a legal eye on the area of space property rights, and his new book, "Who Owns the Moon? - Extraterrestrial Aspects of Land and Mineral Resources Ownership" (Springer, 2008) was published this month.

Pop has been delving into what has shaped the law of extraterrestrial real estate, and the norms which express this law. And in his view, the norms and rules regarding property rights in the celestial realm are rather limited, even failing to define basic concepts such as what is a celestial body.

Pop favors property rights over group hugs.

"Despite the noble ideals of equity and care for the have-nots, the Common Heritage paradigm of the Moon Treaty has more faults than merits," Pop told SPACE.com.

It may seem like a silly thing to think about, but ownership of the valuable resources in space is a question that will eventually need to be addressed. As a libertarian, naturally, I favor private ownership. How the ownership should be determined is a tricky matter. As Pop notes in the article, some sort of homestead law might be a good way to go. You wouldn't be able to claim a piece of property unless you were actively using it.

The alternative is to allow for government or trans-governmental "community" ownership. To imagine how well this might work just think of how the break room at your job looks.