Posted by Ilya Somin:
Property Rights on the Moon?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_12_07-2008_12_13.shtml#1229142202
Recent unmanned lunar missions sent by China, India, and Japan have
reinvigorated the longstanding debate over property rights on the
Moon. Sooner or later, one or several nations will establish a
permanent presence on earth's satellite. At that point, we will have
to decide whether there will be private property rights on the lunar
surface, or whether the entire Moon will be owned by national
governments or by some international agency such as the UN. [1]This
interesting article has some comments on the issue by Romanian space
law scholar Virgiliu Pop, who is a strong supporter of private
property rights (HT: [2]Instapundit):
"Homesteading is likely to transform the lunar desert in the same
manner as it transformed the 19th Century United States," he said.
"Space is indeed a new frontier calling for individualism rather
than collectivism, and its challenges need to be addressed with a
legal regime favorable to property rights."
Much remains to be discussed and perhaps decided upon by various
nations, of course, as space law evolves over time.
"Property rights are a useful engine and, in all likelihood, a
precondition for pushing forward the development of the
extraterrestrial realms," he said. "Securing property rights would
be more beneficial to humankind, compared to the alternative of
keeping the extraterrestrial realms undeveloped."
As Pop suggests, private property rights on the Moon would have many
of the same benefits as here on Earth. They stimulate investment,
innovation, and competition. Perhaps even more important, they prevent
the wanton destruction and overuse of valuable resources through a
tragedy of the commons. I previously made the case for private
property rights in space in [3]this post, raising several points
similar to Pop's arguments.
Pop's analogy to the nineteenth century American West is telling.
Overall, the privatization of federal land in the West was a great
boon to American economic development; we would have been far worse
off if all the land had been left in government hands. However,
tragedies of the commons did arise in the West in situations where
privatization was incomplete. For example, the buffalo were nearly
exterminated by by hunters when they were a common resource available
to all takers; [4]only the development of privately owned buffalo
herds saved the animal from extinction.
Obviously, we do not yet know whether lunar property will have much
economic value. If it But allowing private ownership is likely the
best way to maximize such value as might exist. It also will give
owners strong incentives to find new and potentially more valuable
uses for lunar resources.
The time to consider these issues in detail is now. Government
monopolization of lunar property will be much harder to prevent after
it becomes firmly established than before. Once government control
becomes the norm, powerful interest groups may well block meaningful
privatization.
References
1. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/081210-who-owns-moon.html
2. http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/29451/
3. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_02_18-2007_02_24.shtml#1172136960
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bison#Comeback
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