USA's Executive Order on Use of Space Resources : A critical perspective
Introduction This piece intends to analyze the recent USA's Executive Order on Use of Space Resources which according to me is an unilateral act and violative of USA's international obligations. Non-appropriation of outer space and outer space as global commons: The international law on outer space started emerging as early as in 1957 when the first artificial satellite - Sputnik was launched. When countries did not protest against Sputnik flying over them, they implicitly accepted that the legal regime governing outer space is different from airspace. This is because in airspace, the sovereignty of a country prevails and no country would allow any flight in their airspace, without obtaining permission (which can be in any form). That outer space is governed by a legal regime different from airspace. The defining principle of the law of outer space is that outer space is free for exploration for all countries. A natural corollary to this principle is outer space is