The international regime governing exploitation of natural resources in outer space: Potential process of formulation

With the development of space technology, the commercialization of space activities have brought urgent needs for international space law, one of which is the establishment of the international regime for the exploitation of natural resources in outer space. This paper focuses on two key issues. First, to what extent could the virtue of the Moon Agreement, i.e. the ideology of "common heritage of mankind" influence the formulation of the international regime? Second, what approaches could be adopted to establish such a regime? On one hand, this paper presents the legal ambiguity of the Moon Agreement and the Outer Space Treaty in this field, especially the former which articulates in its Article 11 that "States Parties⋯ to establish an international regime⋯ to govern the exploitation of the natural resources of the Moon as such exploitation is about to become feasible", while there is no explicit provisions further interpreting the term "feasible". On another, this paper analyzes the ideology of "common heritage of mankind" under the context of the Moon Agreement while trying to point out its significance in the establishment of an international regime governing the exploitation of natural resources in outer space. The paper then presents legal recommendation for the formulation of such an international regime, mainly on three perspectives: one, clarifying rights, obligations and responsibilities through amending the Moon Agreement; two, founding the Authority to authorize and supervise the exploitation of natural resources in outer space, the detailed regulations of which could be mirrored from Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in correspondence with the term "common heritage of mankind"; three, developing international norms of exploiting natural resources.