Astro-Green Criminology: A New Perspective against Space CapitalismOPEN ACCESS
Takemura Noriyoshi
Toin University of Yokohama Research Bulletin, No. 40, June. 2019
“As outer space expeditions have been actualized in modern history, humankind started to view outer space as another hope and chance for human conquest and achievements. Bearing in mind that outer space presented new challenges and opportunities to humans, it was important for them to decide how to utilize this seemingly infinite opportunities. In other words, humankind could potentially gear towards the abuse and reckless conquest of this new frontier if they chose to do so since no one was and is familiar with this new territory. Nevertheless, humankind recognized the need for a legal framework to utilize outer space effectively and cautiously as it feared possibilities of world wars, space wars, and chronic conflicts among nations. Since outer space mining became an emerging plan for many countries, it is critical to determine what the main concerns are and to legislate necessary laws for peaceful outer space. Outer space mining became a more controversial topic because of its vulnerability to breach of many treaties of the United Nations as it promotes ownership and sales of outer space materials which is a main subject of violation for many UN treaties. In this paper, we discuss some problems in outer space mining: space capitalism and sus tainable development, national and international regulations, space environment and its protection, and philosophical foundation of outer space protection.”
