Electronic Proceedings - United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

of a relatively small number of States, notwithstanding that, like the other UN space treaties,it was adopted in the UN General Assembly by consensus. The main reason for the hesitationof a great number of States to adhere to the Moon Agreement, including almost all majorspace powers and all space organizations, seems particularly to be a dissatisfaction with theprovisions of Article 11 of this instrument, which deals with the legal status of the Moon andits natural resources that have been declared as “the common heritage of mankind”. Theinsertion of this principle and its partial elaboration in para. 7 of Article 11 do not satisfyeither the technically advanced industrial nations, or most of the developing countries.Yet, the provisional solution of this issue as it was adopted in 1979 seemed to be areasonable compromise that enabled the finalization of a lengthy work on this instrument.Unlike the legal regime provided for the seabed and ocean floor beyond the limits of nationaljurisdiction in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in which a detailedimplementation of the common heritage principle, including a complex system of prospecting,exploration and exploitation has been incorporated, the legal regime of the common heritageof mankind with regard to the Moon and its resources has been conceived in Article 11 of the1979 Moon Agreement only in very general terms. The Moon Agreement requires only theexploitation of the natural resources of the Moon to be governed by the future internationallegal regime, and its full establishment has been postponed until such exploitation is about tobecome feasible. In the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the Moon resources,which was promised to be effected under the future regime for all States Parties, specialconsideration should be given not only to the interests and needs of the developing countries,but equally to the efforts of those countries which have contributed either directly orindirectly to the exploration of the Moon. Unlike the exploitation of the Moon resources, theexploration and the use of the Moon remain a right of all States Parties and, according toArticle 6, the freedom of scientific investigation has also been preserved. The States Parties tothe Moon Agreement have the right to collect and remove from the Moon samples of itsmineral and other substances. They may also use mineral and other substances of the Moon inquantities appropriate for the support of their missions. And last but not least, the future legalregime for the exploitation of the Moon resources would not necessarily lead to theestablishment of a special institutional machinery for its application as is the SeabedAuthority provided in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, as reformed by the1994 Agreement Relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the Convention 12 , for Article 11,para. 5 of the 1979 Moon Agreement speaks only about “appropriate procedures” to beadopted.Another reason of the dissatisfaction with the Moon Agreement might be caused by theprohibition of national appropriation by any claim of sovereignty, by means of use oroccupation or by any other means. This principle, however, has just been a repetition of thesame maxim which had been included in Article II of the 1967 OST. In Article 11, para. 3 ofthe Moon Agreement it has been elaborated by the following provisions: “Neither the surfacenor the subsurface of the Moon, nor any part thereof or natural resources in place, shallbecome property of any State, international intergovernmental or non-governmentalorganization, national organization or non-governmental entity or of any natural person. Theplacement of personnel, space vehicles, equipment, facilities, stations and installations on orbelow the surface of the Moon, including structures connected with its surface or subsurface,shall not create a right of ownership over the surface or the subsurface of the Moon or anyareas thereof”. Nevertheless, it is evident that this set of provisions would not hinder theestablishment of manned and unmanned stations and installations anywhere on or below thesurface of the Moon. Neither would they create any obstacles to the activities of the personnel,vehicles and equipment on the Moon and their free access to all areas of the Moon. The statusof the missions to the Moon and of the stations on the Moon according to the 1979 Moon12 See these instruments in Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs,The Law of the Sea, United Nations, New York, 1997, p. 7 et seq. and 214 et seq.16