OUTER SPACE AS THE PROVICE OF MANKIND -AN ASSESSMENT OF 40 YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT

摘要

Article I stands at the very heart of the provisions of the Outer Space Treaty (OST), the Magna Charta of space law that celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year. Article I OST not only enshrines the fundamental principle of freedom of exploration and use of outer space by all states (paragraph 2), but it also contains an important limitation to such exploration and use in its paragraph 1. Over the past forty years, the exact scope and content of this latter provision has given cause to much debate, however. Against the background of the developments during forty years of the Outer Space Treaty's existence, this paper shall first examine the original concept of the wording "province of all mankind". It then examines in how far outer space can be perceived as the "province of all mankind" in an era of privatisation and commercialisation of space activities. Finally, it shall evaluate what follows from this perception for the exploration and use of outer space.