Orbital Commons or Neo-Colonial Frontier; A New Paradigm of Stellar Stewardship

Abstract

The increasing push to exploit outer space resources has reignited fundamental questions about sovereignty, equity, and stewardship beyond Earth. Is outer space to remain an “orbital common” held in trust for all humankind, or is it becoming a neo-colonial frontier dominated by those with the means to stake early claims? This paper confronts that dilemma, arguing for a new paradigm of stellar stewardship that reimagines space governance through equity and collective custodianship. Current international space law, anchored in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST), proclaims lofty principles that the exploration and use of space shall be “for the benefit and in the interests of all countries” and that space is the “province of all mankind”. Yet in practice, these ideals have been undermined by hegemonic powers and private actors pursuing unilateral advantages. The failure of the 1979 Moon Agreement, which declared the Moon’s resources the “common heritage of mankind”, underscores deep divisions between visions of space as a shared legacy and as a realm for competitive exploitation. This article takes a highly analytical and doctrinal approach, enriched by novel theoretical interpretations, to examine how outer space governance has evolved amid power imbalances. It interrogates the OST, the Moon Agreement, and emerging customary norms, alongside critical perspectives from Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), postcolonial theory, and indigenous legal traditions. The analysis reveals how colonial-era dynamics persist in space law, through the exclusion of Global South voices in lawmaking and the framing of space as terra nullius ripe for conquest, thus threatening to repeat on the “final frontier” the inequities of earlier eras. This paper critically assesses how hegemonic actors (predominantly Global North states and corporations) have undermined the Common Heritage of Mankind (CHM) principle, and how the failure of the Moon Treaty can be attributed to systemic marginalization of the Global South and the erasure of indigenous cosmologies. Building on this critique, the paper proposes an alternative framework for space resource stewardship grounded in indigenous and customary law principles. This proposed regime emphasizes intergenerational equity, collective rights, and planetary custodianship, seeking to align space governance with the values of communities historically attuned to sustainable resource management. Structurally, the discussion is organized into distinct but intersecting parts. First, a literature review outlines the development of space law and commentary on its gaps, as well as theoretical frameworks that inform this study.