국제법상 우주자원의 법적 성격과 관리제도

A number of private companies such as Deep Space Industries, Moon Express, and Shackleton are pursuing space mining business. Spacecrafts with prepatory missions could be launched as early as next year. In order to facilitate these initiatives, the United States legislated ‘Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act’(CSLCA) in November 2015. Luxemburg also enacted ‘Law on the Exploration and Use of Space Resources’(LEUSR) in July 2017. The section 51302 of CSLCA provides that “A United States citizen (...) shall be entitled to any asteroid resource or space resource obtained, including to posses, own, transport, use, and sell the asteroid resources or space resource obtained in accordance with applicable law, including the international obligations of the United States”. Likewise, The article 1 of LEUSR stipulates that “Space resources are capable of being appropriated in accordance with international law”. There are conflicting opinions on whether the above two legislations violate one of the principles of ‘non appropriation of outer space’ in international space law. This argument originates from the deficiencies of the international law on the definition and legal status of space resources. This article attempts to define the term ‘space resources’ and its legal status based on the analysis of UN's five treaties related to the space activities and the two legislations introduced above. Only after the definition of space resources and its legal status are settled, a management regime for space resources could follow.