![]() To buy one acre of "lunar property," Hope charges $19.99, or $36.50 total after a shipping and handling fee, "lunar tax" and a fee for an official copy of the deed. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.Fact check: False claim about LeBron James, 'Space Jam' ticket sales started as satire This questionoriginally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. So, save your money to buy that beautiful oak tree-shaded plot in the Texas hill country, because you simply can’t own acreage on the moon. No private person can own property and freely exercise rights of ownership under the law unless that land has been first legally claimed by some sovereign and unless that sovereign has established a legal system that recognizes and protects that ownership. So, in summary, the OST says that no nation can exercise sovereignty over any body in outer space, including the moon. Just think about it from the perspective of a bank giving you a loan to buy the land and build (or buy) a house on it-no bank would ever give the loan at an interest rate anyone could afford unless there was a legal system that protected your possession of it AND that provided a means by which the bank could foreclose on the loan if you don’t make the payments. Schmuckmaker from interfering with your legal use and enjoyment of the land (and empowering the Madison County Sheriff’s Office to cart him off to jail if he violates that order), and obtaining legal damages from him for the tort of trespass, that makes your ownership of the land more than a mere legal formality. It is your ability to go to court, get a Temporary Restraining Order barring Mr. Who cares if you have a piece of paper that says you own Tract 142 of Sunshine Acres Estates, as shown on the Plat of Subdivision filed in Book 183, page 211 of the Real Property Records of Madison County, State of Whatever, unless that piece of paper keeps Simon Schmuckmaker from the adjoining tract from building his barn where you had planned to dig your duck pond? Or from coming on the land armed with Ole Betsy, his trusty 12 gauge shotgun, and running you off the property before you can even get the foundation poured for your house. That right has meaning ONLY if you can enforce it in the courts. ![]() At bottom, ownership of land is a legal right to exclusive possession, use, and control of the land and what it produces. Some sovereign had to own the property FIRST, so that you can trace your ownership back to that sovereign (or more than one sovereign-many abstracts refer to the treaty or treaties by which that territory passed from a foreign sovereign into the possession of the United States).įurther, it is the law of that sovereign that recognizes, protects, and legitimizes your ownership. Title then passed through a series of owners down through history to YOU. That sovereign then caused that piece of land to be “severed from the public domain” by means of a land grant, sale, Homestead Act Title, or some other means and became someone’s property. You will see that, at one time or another, your land was claimed as sovereign territory of the United States of America, or the United Kingdom of Great Britain, etc., or the Kingdom of Spain, or the Republic of Mexico, or the Russian Empire, or the Kingdom of Hawaii (I think that’s all of them, but I might have missed one in there somewhere). ![]() ![]() ![]() If you own land in the United States and received an “abstract of title” look at it carefully, all the way back to the last page. I’m not a nation, so why can’t I buy 40 acres on the Moon with a nice view of the Apollo 15 landing site?” Contrary to what you might believe, this provision absolutely prevents you from buying that gray, arid hunk of moon that you crave.Īny claim to own “real property” (“immovable property” in those countries whose law descends from the Roman Civil Law, or just plain “land” to most people) MUST derive from some national claim of sovereignty. The relevant provision of the OST is Article II which states: “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.” ![]()
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