Commercialization of Space Activities: Correlation of Private and Public Interest in the Pursuit of Outer Space Exploration

• Author: Oleksandr Svetlichnyj and Diana Levchenko
• Position: Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine)/Master Degree in Law, researcher, Scientific Institute of Public Law (Kyiv, Ukraine)
• Pages: 80-91

Advanced Space Law, Volume 4, 2019

80

Commercialization of Space Activities:

Correlation of Private and Public Interest

in the Pursuit of Outer Space Exploration

Oleksandr Svetlichnyj1

Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, National University of Life and Environmental

Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine)

E-mail: a.svetlichnyj@ukr.net

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0485-3804

Diana Levchenko2

Master Degree in Law, researcher, Scientic Institute of Public Law (Kyiv, Ukraine)

E-mail: diana.levchenko5@gmail.com

https//orcid.org/0000-0001-8343-2260

The article reveals the issues of space exploration by private entities who have intensied their

eorts in space activities. The US and Luxembourg legal regulations, which both govern the private

sector involvement in State space activities and allow citizens to freely engage in the development of

planets and asteroids, to own and dispose of resources, including water and minerals, are under analysis.

Therefore, due to the occurrence of legal collisions, the International Law Association and the Space

Law Committee, established on its basis, should inuence regulating space issues. These institutions

are known for their open policies and extensive external relations. Their key mission is to study, clarify

and develop international public and private law and prepare comparative law research. The author

concludes that being an important human resource, space objects and natural resources should belong

to all humanity, not to individual States or private enterprises. The adoption of the US and Luxembourg

legislation on legalizing, extracting, using and appropriating space resources by private enterprises

seems to be in full compliance with international obligations, however, in fact they violate the principles

governing the activities of States in the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other

celestial bodies, which are not subject to national appropriation, neither by proclaiming sovereignty, nor

by uses or occupation, nor by any other means.

Keywords: ownership, space objects, natural resources, international space law, regulations,

organization

Received: August 28, 2019; accepted: October 07, 2019

Advanced Space Law, Volume 4, 2019: 80-91.

https://doi.org/10.29202/asl/2019/4/8

© Svetlichnyj, Oleksandr, 2019

© Levchenko, Diana, 2019