THE PATH TO DEFINE PROPERTY RIGHTS OVER METEORITES IN BRAZIL

Abstract

Since the 1960s, several missions, crewed or not, have returned from space bringing with them lunar natural resources. Each of these missions was an act regulated by Space Law and guided by the principles of the Outer Space Treaty, the most important international agreement to rule activities in space. The extraction of space resources followed, in all cases, the “non-appropriation” principle, brought by the Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty, which makes it forbidden for States to declare, by any means, ownership of celestial bodies. However, when fragments of these same space bodies enter our atmosphere and reach the surface without human interference, in a natural way, the regulation of their property rights goes off the scope of International Law and is transfered to the individual responsibility of the affected country. On land, property rights over these resources, called meteorites, are admitted. Defining, however, to whom they belong, should be the task of legislators. In Brazil there is still no law on the matter. So, based on the analysis of the peculiarities of the occurred phenomena and on the study of the current national and international law regency, this paper exposes the available alternatives to solve the question about the property rights over meteorites fallen in Brazilian territory.