A Common Law Mortgage on a Common Law Lease on a Space Resource is Legally Available
Abstract
Space Objects are subject to the law of the launching states under the Outer Space Treaty, but space resources, those natural resources already located in space, are not subject to any law other than the treaty laws applicable thereto. In this case of "creditor's rights," there is a void in the treaty regime, except for the proposition that all space resources are public property, (thus inferring that private ownership is not legally possible). However, the law of public property clearly allows possessory estates on common grounds that are not official monuments. The common law development for 750 years has maintained possessory estates as readily available: these are the trust, the lease, the easement, and the mortgage. These estates exists as legal superstructures independent from the underlying physical property. Thus, we could have a 99- year lease of the Apollo 17 landing site on iron ore on the Moon that is mortgaged for a trillion dollars or so, subsequently defaulted, and foreclosed in any Court of General Jurisdiction in favor of the creditor as the new owner. The creditor ends up with the remaining term on the lease, but not with any ownership of the site, the iron ore, and not with ownership of any part of the Moon: It is still public property. This is not only legally available today, it is the exact history of common law estates, (none of which impair legal title by definition and precedent). This model will be discussed as a likely way for astro law to evolve. Association; President of United Societies in Space, Inc., and of its Regency of United Societies in Space, Inc. (ROUSIS); Board of Directors, Mars Society; Board of Directors, Lunar Economic Development Authority, Inc.; Board of Directors, Space Orbital Development Authority; Publisher, Space Governance Journal; and member, AIAA Subcommittee on Space Colonization.
- Publication:
-
IAF abstracts, 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- January 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002iaf..confE.382O