Space Resources and the Politics of International Regime Formation

Abstract

Space resources such as minerals or lunar ice deposits are of growing economic and political interest in the context of the emerging space economy and the intensifying geopolitical tensions of a new “space race”. Scholars and stakeholders increasingly engage with the question of how to regulate the future exploration and exploitation of space resources under international law. A potential option that has drawn broad attention in the debate is a multilateral regime that would regulate space resources as the common heritage of humanity and aim for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits that derive from their exploration and exploitation. Whereas a considerable body of literature addresses the legal and institutional characteristics of such a hypothetical regime, questions of regime formation have so far been neglected. This paper probes the feasibility and the prospects of developing a multilateral and common heritage-centric regime for space resources by a) drawing on theoretical insights from the scholarly debate on the politics of international regime formation and b) extracting insights and lessons from two historical cases of regime formation (under the Antarctic Treaty System and the Law of the Sea Convention) addressing similar challenges of regulating transnational commons in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. The analysis indicates extraordinarily adverse background conditions that make the successful formation of a multilateral and common heritage-centric regime for space resources highly implausible despite its prima facie normative appeal. The political prospects for devising fair, equitable and effective solutions to the problem of space resources are accordingly limited and likely to remain so.

Keywords

• space resources
• space commons
• multilateralism
• international institutions
• common heritage of humanity