The Impact of Epistemic Communities on the Development of Future International Legal Regulation of Lunar Activities

Every human culture has reflected the Moon’s influence in its cosmology, spirituality, science, creative and social life. For these reasons, the exploration and use of the Moon should be done thoughtfully and carefully, and possible resource extraction should not harm the Earth's only satellite and its environment as a whole. The adoption by some States of national legislation affecting the commercial exploitation of space resources, as well as the resumption of lunar programs by several leading spacefaring nations at a time, prompt the need for legal regulation in this area. However, to develop a detailed international legal regime for lunar exploration, the efforts of the States parties to the UN COPUOS alone are not sufficient since in practice other actors in international relations, including the so-called epistemic communities representing various types of non-governmental organizations, are also active participants in space activities. Such communities offer their own vision of the international legal regulation of relations arising in the framework of the exploration and use of the Moon basing on the norms of international space law and involving active participation of non-governmental legal entities, considering the interests of present and future generations, as well as of emerging space nations. The study presents a comprehensive analysis of the influence of epistemic communities on the development of the future international legal regime for lunar exploration. The authors consistently review the activities of non-governmental organizations within the UN COPUOS since its formation. Special attention is paid to the contribution of such communities to the progressive development of international space law and its codification, including the legal nature of the documents developed by such communities. The study concludes with a comprehensive international legal assessment of the activities of the epistemic communities.