Moon Agreement: Key Provisions

The Moon Agreement is the least successful international space treaty with only 17 States being Party to it, not including any of the space-faring ones. Despite its limited number of ratifications, the Moon Agreement maintains its legal relevance, especially in consideration of the present interest towards setting up principles governing space resource utilization activities. There are at least three elements that render the Moon Agreement relevant in this context. First, it is the only international treaty that contains rules dedicated to the conduct of human activities on a celestial body, including the utilization of resources for scientific and non-scientific purposes. Secondly, it is worth assessing how the multilateral approach endorsed by the Agreement may (or may not) coexist with the numerous domestic and regional legal initiatives that States have taken in the area of space resource utilization. Thirdly, one has to investigate the role that the States Parties to the Agreement are playing (and will play) in the process of formation of a potential framework governing lunar and other celestial bodies’ activities within the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, particularly by assessing whether these countries are effectively promoting the Agreement’s provisions or are taking a more cautious approach.