Space jurisdiction
, a field addressing what countries can enforce various
laws
in
space
, has become more important as the private sector enters the field of
space tourism
. Under the
Outer Space Treaty
of 1967, while space and celestial bodies cannot be appropriated by nations, objects launched into space and personnel on board them remain under the jurisdiction of the state of registry.
International treaties
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The majority of international treaties currently in existence address only specific aspects of space. No major treaties have been passed that have broad, sweeping jurisdiction in space, and it is largely unclear who would enforce such laws. The treaties currently in existence regarding
space law
include the following:
The
Moon Treaty
of 1979 was proposed after the Outer Space Treaty, but failed to be ratified by any major
space-faring nation
such as those capable of
orbital spaceflight
.
[1]
If it had been broadly accepted, the result would have been an international regime overseeing extraction of resources from celestial bodies.
Trade in space
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Issues of trade and crime in space have not been debated except with respect to the
International Space Station
. Agreements have involved all units in operation including Europe, the United States, Russia, Canada, and Japan. Three basic levels of agreement include:
Space marriage
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Space marriage is a relatively unexplored but emerging attraction of
space tourism
industry in the private sector.
As more private companies start to travel into space, the demand for such services as marriage in space may increase.
[
speculation?
]
.
On August 10, 2003, Russian cosmonaut
Yuri Malenchenko
became the first human to marry in space. A provision in
Texas
marriage
laws, that says one party does not have to be present so long as the couple presents an
affidavit
explaining why one of the two participants in the ceremony can't attend, allowed Malenchenko to marry his bride,
Ekaterina Dmitriev
, from the
International Space Station
.
Other matters of space jurisdiction
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With the failure of the
Moon Treaty of 1979
(which would have established a principle of the
common heritage of mankind
for celestial bodies and required establishing an international regime to supervise use), there is no clear rule regarding the development or use of resources located in space, whether by states or private parties. The United States has asserted a right for U.S. citizens to own space resources they obtain, per the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (H.R. 2262) § 51303:
[2]
A United States citizen engaged in commercial recovery of an asteroid resource or a space resource under this chapter shall be entitled to any asteroid resource or space resource obtained, including to possess, own, transport, use, and sell the asteroid resource or space resource obtained in accordance with applicable law, including the international obligations of the United States
Criminal law
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Prosecution of crimes committed in space, under current law, would be expected to fall under the same mix of claims of jurisdiction by state of registry, nationality of the perpetrator, and nationality of the victim that govern crimes on the
high seas
or in
Antarctica
.
At least until recently, the combination of thorough
background checks
, vigorous training regimes and strict codes of conduct governing professional spacecrew have combined to make it highly unlikely that anyone inclined to and/or intent on engaging in criminal activity would be launched into space. As of 2024, no person from any country is known to have been charged with (let alone convicted of) a crime committed in space.
Furthermore, there is only one known instance of a formal complaint alleging a crime committed from space, which involved a non-space traveling complainant who was the estranged spouse of the
accused astronaut
. The ensuing investigation exonerated the astronaut and instead resulted in an indictment against the original complainant for making false statements to authorities.
References
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