9 THE ITALIAN LAW JOURNAL NO. 2 (2023)
Space Colonization: Which Regulations and in Whose Interests?
by Valentina Barela This work aims to analyse the emerging and urgent issue of the lack of regulation on the exploitation of resources extracted from celestial bodies. It highlights the leading role of private investors, which inevitably disrupts the traditional legal frameworks of private and public law. It outlines the incomplete interpretations that international regulations are subject to. They have prompted the intervention of national legislation on this theoretically international law-bound subject. Attention then focuses on two national laws, the US and Japanese, as examples of a non-dogmatic, but functional approach to this subject. The traditional tools offered by public and private law cannot be underpinned in their original context, therefore it is necessary to go beyond the ontological problem of property rights as national laws have been established. Finally, the intention is to propose a working towards bilateral agreements that, in line with national laws, testify to a different significance of the parties involved, such as private and public entities, space agencies, among others. DOI 10.23815/2421-2156.ITALJ ISSN 2421-2156
