The Case for Lunar Property Rights

longacre writes "Who owns the moon? In a thought provoking piece, Instapundit blogger/law professor Glenn Reynolds gives us a brief history of earthlings' discourse on lunar property rights, a topic which has stagnated since the 1979 Moon Treaty. Is it possible to claim good title on land that is not under the dominion of a nation? He goes on to plead his case for the creation of lunar real estate legislation. From the article: 'Property rights attract private capital and, with government space programs stagnating, a lunar land rush may be just what we need to get things going again.'"

Comments

Re:Possession is nine tenths of the law.

[QuantumPete]

But that'd mean that the US already owns the entire moon, being the only nation to ever have set foot there (and even planted a flag). They didn't say "I claim this island (trabant) in the name of blah." but with some careful editing of the historical footage, I'm sure that could be rectified ;-)

The year was 1970...

[flaming error]

Humiliated by the Americans beating them to the moon, the Soviets developed plans to send a massive unmanned rocket to the moon, laden with red paint. On impact, the paint would cover the entire bright side of the moon. A second, manned mission would immediately follow. The cargo - white paint, to make a bright hammer and crescent symbol against the red background.

American intelligence learned of these plans. A great opportunity arose to foil them. But instead the American President, "Tricky Dick" Nixon, demurred. "Let them go ahead and paint the moon," he said.

"But Mr. President, surely the image of the Soviet Empire covering the moon..."

"After they've painted it red," said Nixon, "we'll paint the logo of Coca Cola."

It's simple

[Colin Smith]

Who owns anything? The person with the biggest stick.

Re:location, location, location

[nospam007]

So what can you do on the Moon that would make it so fabulously valuable?

You could mine the cheese.

Re:location, location, location

[Notegg Nornoggin]

Maybe the UN should allocate a bunch of land to each country with a reasonable claim (i.e. viable spam programme)

Greetings!

I am the son of the former Nigerian Ministry for Lunar Development and I have a large sum of money held in his locked bank account...

Re:Possession is nine tenths of the law.

[bloodninja]

That's almost $30 an acre. Today, you can still buy range land in New Mexico for $40 an acre. And that is with Earth's atmosphere included, and substantially lower transportation and energy costs. So, Martian land is less expensive than New Mexico land? And it is located in an isolated, relatively secluded place that even the US government has difficulty getting to? The Scientologists and Davidians will be crawling all over it now that the cat is out of the bag!

Re:Possession is nine tenths of the law.

[Rude Turnip]

You can still "discover" that your wife is cheating on you, although at least 2 others knew before you.