Monika Ehrman, the first Distinguished Scholar of UH Law’s Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Center, discusses legal aspects of resource extraction from outer space.
Monika Ehrman (center) poses with representatives of UHLC’s EENR Center (L to R): Professors Julian Cardenas Garcia and Chinonso Anozie to Erhman’s right, and to her left Research Scholar Qaraman Hasan, EENR Center Co-Director and A.L. O’ Quinn Chair in Environmental Studies Gina Warren, and Professor Denney Wright.
Houston, April 21, 2025 – A modern-day gold rush is upon humankind, but this time the sought-after resources are extraterrestrial. As commercial and private space exploration continues to rise, the lack of specific legal frameworks creates significant risks and questions, according to Monika Ehrman, the Inaugural Distinguished Scholar of the University of Houston Law Center’s Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Center.
“The problem with space is the problem with access,” said Ehrman, a law professor at SMU Dedman School of Law and an engineering professor at SMU’s Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering. Ehrman’s talk, "Outer Space Resource Extraction and Ownership," for UHLC students was hosted by the EENR Center recently. Her presentation focused on the questions of ownership and access to resources within space, along with the apparent lack of governance regarding space resource extraction.
Province of all Humankind
In her presentation, Ehrman challenged the concept of outer space as the “province of all mankind” as stated in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 because of limited accessibility to space for everyone.
Ehrman, who specializes in energy law, environmental law, oil and gas and property law, drew parallels between the evolution of mining laws around the globe to outer space mining or extraction, as well as the ownership of resources from outer space.
Ehrman discussed the 1872 General Mining Law, where successful miners profited from the resources they collected, and the concept of the rule of capture, where ownership is established by capture. However, she said that applying this logic, along with the principles of the General Mining Law, to modern-day space resource extraction is problematic for two key reasons. One reason is that ordinary individuals lack the means to access space, and second, the companies capable of capturing extraterrestrial resources are not obligated to share any benefits with humanity as a whole.
The concept of outer space as belonging to all humankind was first introduced during the Cold War with the signing of the Outer Space Treaty she shared. The Outer Space Treaty only covered military aspects of space, not the extraction and ownership aspects.
“Space was primarily thought about as a launching pad for some sort of nuclear missile attack. A lot of the treaties that were formed here were to prevent the militarization of space,” Ehrman said. “They were not looked at as any sort of embarkment of colonization.”
Her research highlights a significant void in the governance of space resulting from the Outer Space Treaty's lack of acknowledgment for the ownership and extraction of extraterrestrial resources.
Ehrman asked the audience: “If space is the province of all humankind, shouldn’t we get a cut of what’s taken out of space?”
Geopolitics
Geopolitics adds another layer of complexity that needs attention before disastrous outcomes take place as space exploration continues to grow, according to Ehrman. She posed more crucial questions that needed to be answered.
“What constitutes a conflict? What constitutes attention? What constitutes an incident [that] can trigger a lot of consequences geopolitically,” Ehrman said. “What if we accidentally bump into each other? What if one firm's unit accidentally dislodges another?”
Solution
While the obvious solution to many of these issues may be creating and implementing relevant laws, achieving a consensus in international law is going to be far more complex, Ehrman said.
“We can get countries that don’t have access to space to agree on things. That’s not helpful,” she pointed out. “The problem is we don’t have the U.S., Russia, China to agree to these commitments, and those are the countries that have the access to enter space.”
