La explotación de recursos naturales en la Luna y en otros cuerpos celestes por parte de Estados y entidades privadas en el derecho internacional ultraterrestre

Abstract

The present paper proposes to get deep into a new topic for International Law: the exploitation of natural resources in celestial bodies such as the Moon, Mars, asteroids and comets, inter alia; an activity that has only recently begun to sound like a feasible event closer to happen, thanks to the global technological advancements. However, it is also presented as a possible uncontrolled and deregulated practice by private entities and States, guided by their own profit, in detriment of the principles of international cooperation and the non-exercise of sovereignty in space (which have characterized, so far, the so-called “space law”), as well as in harm of the ecosystem of our solar system and the well-being of future generations. With this separation from the exploratory and scientific purposes that until now had governed human activity in outer space, the objective of this essay is to find in current international law a barrier to this exercise without limits. In this way, the various sources of law will be analysed, both the “formal” and those that are not considered as such, comparing briefly this new-born branch of law with others that, due to their object of regulation, carry a certain similarity, in order to find in them and in their conjunction a prohibition or, at least, a limitation to this particular extractivist practice in celestial bodies, highlighting as well the need to stipulate new agreements to achieve greater clarity on the matter.