Hi TrAI,

You bring up some interesting points. The system you describe where property rights derive from sovereignty is known as "common law" and is the law of the land in the US and most European countries (but not France). Thus, Queen Elizabeth II owns more land on Earth than anybody: over 6 billion acres, including the entire countries of Canada and Australia! In the US, the government has sold or given away title to most of its land.

But this raises a point regarding Alan Wasser's proposal for a law that would recognize property rights on the Moon: it would set a dangerous precedent in that it might seem to legitimize squatter's rights on property within the terrestrial United States; whether it might also be struck down by the high courts as unconstitutional, I do not know; but probably not, see below.

Civil law, like they have in France (and Louisiana, I think) do in fact recognize squatter's rights of those who have mixed their labor with the land. So France, at least, would have no internal legal problem with recognizing property rights on the Moon.

You also raise another interesting point: what will happen when private settler's start taking on the characteristics of a nation state, and decide they want autonomy from the Earth? Would not a declaration of independence from such folks constitute an assertion of national sovereignty over the Moon, and therefore be in direct violation of Article II of the Outer Space Treaty?

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin