Lunar Embassy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Lunar Embassy is the official website and the name of a company around Dennis Hope, which has made it its business to sell properties in space . However, the ownership claims are not recognized by any legal institution.

The history

The Dennis Hope story

From a US legal point of view, the starting signal for the “sell-out of space” was given due to an alleged loophole in the law. Dennis Hope knew about a law in the USA, according to which anyone can call any property their own if the request was made public for a certain period of time, for example by posting or by circular. This relic from the Wild West comes into force if no objection is raised against this request. In this case, the notification was given to the Registration Office in San Francisco , and after approval by the latter in 1980, Dennis Hope sent letters to the UN and the US government to reinforce his claims. Since then, he has been offering alien land for sale. Many companies have already jumped on this bandwagon and bought space from Dennis Hope in order to resell them.

For Dennis Hope, who sees himself as "The Head Cheese" of space and as chairman of the "State" Luna, this was a lucrative business.

Over time, however, there have also been a number of lawsuits. A sensational complaint here was in 2003, which was dismissed because the judge came to the conclusion that he had no decision-making power over the moon.

Legal basis

In the United States of America , you still have the right to claim a claim . Dennis Hope took advantage of this right and accordingly “secured” plots of land in space in accordance with American law. However, American law does not apply to the moon or to any of the other celestial bodies in the solar system . It therefore remains to be seen whether these claims will actually be taken into account if these celestial bodies should one day be colonized. It is also more than questionable to what extent these properties have been sold as legally binding in countries other than the United States.

According to international law, there are two treaties: the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and the 1979 Moon Treaty, which was signed in 1984. The former prohibits states from appropriating land in space, the other should regulate this for private individuals and companies as well. While the older treaty was signed by almost all member states of the United Nations , the enthusiasm for the lunar treaty was limited - this was particularly not accepted by any space-traveling state at the time; so it has not yet become effective. There was considerable resistance from the USA, as it was feared that if valuable resources were discovered they could not be used profitably afterwards. However, contrary to the frequently cited arguments, there is no legal loophole in this, because every private property is in turn derived from a state. Accordingly, the property office of San Francisco, with which Hope was "registered" or the USA should first have the right to transfer ownership of lunar properties to a private person. Under generally applicable international law , which today includes the 1967 Space Treaty, neither the USA nor any other state have this right. Furthermore, according to the unanimous opinion, international law also binds private individuals directly. For example, nobody would seriously claim that private individuals and companies are allowed to own nuclear weapons just because the Non-Proliferation Treaty only mentions states.

In addition, emphasis was placed in the past on not “selling” any properties that could be of scientific value (e.g. planned and past landing sites for missions or famous places with a cultural character such as the so-called face of Mars ) so as not to create conflicts . In the course of mankind's thirst for knowledge, it is still being pointed out that one should tolerate probe landings on one's property, even if the legal obligation no longer exists.

Lunar Embassy History

Lunar Embassy has been marketing properties on various celestial bodies for a good ten years. In addition to the moon, which served as the namesake, you can purchase properties on Mars, Venus, Mercury and various moons of the solar system. The plots are about the size of an acre , about the area of ​​a soccer field. Not only in the USA, but worldwide you have the opportunity to buy land from Dennis Hope - on the one hand through franchise companies around the world, on the other hand other companies buy land in order to resell them.

Lunar Embassy - current

Constitution

In addition to the ubiquitous online shop option, the Lunar Embassy also offers a kind of constitution. This is entitled Declaration of galactic Independence and can be viewed on the company's website.

Public opinion

The public opinion on this issue is very ambiguous. Sometimes many see this venture as a brilliant idea for quick fame and money, sometimes they wonder about the success of this business idea. The initial media hype has now subsided. When the claim was approved, this had caused considerable media upturn.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Declaration of independence" on lunarembassy.com (English)