OWNERSHIP CLAIMS IN OUTER SPACE
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Date
2019
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Benson Idahosa University Law Journal
Abstract
Ever since a man walked into a notary public office in Pittsburgh in 1936, declaring all the property known as planet, islands-of-space and other matter, supposedly known as A.D Lindsay archapellago, to belong to him, the rate at which individuals, organisations and even States are laying claim of ownership to all or part of outer space have been on the increase. This is despite the provision of Article II of the Outer Space Treaty 1967 which tries to make the environment of the outer space property of all mankind. It is the intention of this paper to assess the relevant international law on the outer space in respect of ownership of outer space in order to ascertain the claimant’s authority in its ownership claim and how such claims have been dealt with. In doing so, this paper adopts doctrinal method of legal research. It defines what outer space is in order to find the dividing line between outer space and airspace in order to specify the areas in which claims of ownership are being made. It also discusses some of the claims seen so far as regards individual, corporate and state claims of ownership of the portions of this environment. It further addresses the provision of the basic space regimes to determine the attitude of these regimes to such claims. At the end, the paper comes up with recommendations that can cater for the lacunas identified in the space Treaties which leads to such abuse of claims.
Space Law, Outer Space, Ownership, Right, Individual, Claims