The 1967 treaty is silent on private persons
Article II bars national appropriation. It says nothing about private citizens — because in 1967 the private sector was not a party to treaty-making. Silence is not prohibition.
Published September 2026
Property rights beyond Earth are within reach — and the capital is already waiting.
No nation can own the Moon by flag. But nothing in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty forecloses property rights for people and companies — and until that ambiguity is settled, serious capital stays on the ground. This paper sets out a multi-arena strategy to settle it.
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From the author
Multi-Arena Strategy for Solidifying Private Property Rights
Wes Faires – 2026 – Space Rights, LLC
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty establishes that no nation can annex the Moon, or any celestial body. But nothing forecloses property rights for people and companies to evolve and until that ambiguity is settled, serious capital stays on the ground. This paper sets out a multi-arena strategy to settle it. The right combination of action across private, national, and international arenas can solidify a favorable climate for private property rights within the current and future international framework governing outer space.
The problem
Ambiguity is the bottleneck, not physics.
Extraction is close to settled: four nations have legislated that mining space resources is not national appropriation, and the Artemis Accords say the same. What remains unwritten is resources in place — the surface and subsurface rights that a lender, an insurer, or an investment committee actually needs before funding a decade-long lunar or asteroid venture.
Get that right and the sector unlocks. Get it wrong — or let a Moon Agreement clause be copied verbatim into new UN principles in 2027 — and private development beyond Earth stalls for a generation.
The argument
Five load-bearing claims
The drafters knew how to exclude individuals
The Moon Agreement (“or of any natural person”) and UNCLOS (“natural or juridical person”) show the exact language used when a treaty means to foreclose private rights. The Outer Space Treaty does not contain it.
Property is a declared human right
Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms the right to own property and freedom from arbitrary deprivation. UN space policy is bound to its own core principles.
In-situ is the open frontier
National law and the Artemis Accords have settled extracted resources. Resources in place — surface and subsurface — remain unwritten. Only the Moon Agreement forecloses them, and few nations have joined it.
A multi-arena strategy, not a lawsuit
Favorable interpretation can be built through Article VI authorization at the national level, bilateral accords, and stakeholder participation at UNCOPUOS — without litigation and without violating non-appropriation.
Read the reasoning in full
Treaty text, comparative analysis, national legislation, and the UNCOPUOS timeline.
Open the paperWho should sign
Any stakeholder with a strong interest in property rights for the Moon, asteroids, or Martian development.
You can sign for yourself as an individual — or, more consequentially, on behalf of your organization, if you are authorized to commit it.
Space lawyers
Practitioners who can test and sharpen the treaty reading.
Policy professionals
Delegations and agencies shaping the 2027 principles.
Commercial entrepreneurs
Founders and investors whose capital waits on clarity.
Nationals & civic representatives
Those who can carry Article VI authorization forward at home.
Academics
Researchers working the property-rights problem directly.