Browsing by Author "Vehi, Antti"

The aim of this thesis was to find out whether the enactment of national space law is countering international space law principles, especially in the case of space law concerning space-based resources. The thesis focuses on the legality of use of space-based resources, on behalf of private actors and States. There are three main research questions, out of which the first one asks whether private actors need their own legal regimes and instruments, separate from those that bind States. The second question continues by asking if the constant development of national space legislation is in fact countering international legal principles set forth in the space law treaties. The third question aims to discover if national space law is beginning to overtake international space law norms, in the specific case of laws concerning space resource extraction, and if States are driving their own interests instead of sharing the benefits as the common property of all nations and peoples. The research is completed using a legal dogmatic method and partially a politico-legal one. The main sources being used are specific national space resource legislation (The United States, Luxembourg, and the UAE), international space law treaties (the most important ones being the Outer Space Treaty and the Moon Agreement), the legal principles derived out of those international treaties, and especially those scientific articles, books, and writings that concern themselves with space resource topics in the field of law. The hierarchy of norms will be derived from ICJ statute Article 38, with treaty interpretation being done through the use of the Vienna Convention Articles 31 and 32. The conclusion of this research illustrated that the national and international space law systems, with regards to space resources, are outdated and insufficient for modern realities. This is especially true of the international space law system. National interests are in constant disagreement with international space resource law, which greatly hinders any developments in it. The existing national space law systems also undercut international treaty principles with the effect that international space resource law is becoming less effective in controlling space resources. This forms a considerable risk to the international space law principle on the sharing of space resources as the common property of all mankind. The final deductions of this research are that in the end it would be pertinent to crate new international space resource law, so that private actors functioning in the realm of outer space would be more efficient and predictable, and the principle of space resources as the common good of all mankind would be realised not just de jure, but also de facto.