As estate lawyers, we’re used to dealing with the tangible: homes, bank accounts, family businesses. But what happens when the assets in question aren’t on Earth?
NASA’s Artemis program is reigniting lunar exploration, with plans for a sustained human presence on the Moon. Alongside this, private companies are investing in asteroid mining and lunar resource extraction. The legal implications? Still very much in orbit.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, ratified by over 100 countries including Canada, prohibits nations from claiming sovereignty over celestial bodies. But it’s silent on whether individuals or corporations can own what they extract. That silence has opened the door to national legislation.
The United States, Luxembourg, Japan, and the UAE have all passed laws allowing private ownership of space resources. These laws treat extracted materials, such as lunar water or asteroid minerals, as property. And if something is property, it can be bought, sold… and inherited.
But here’s where it gets complicated.
Let’s say a Canadian investor holds shares in a U.S.-based asteroid mining company. Those shares are clearly part of their estate. But what about the rights to the resources themselves? If the investor directly owns extracted materials, are those assets governed by Canadian succession law? Or by the laws of the country where the extraction occurred?
And what if the right to mine is tied to a non-transferable license? In that case, the resource rights might not pass to heirs at all.
Estate planners soon might need to start thinking about how to handle these scenarios. That means:
- Including space-related assets in wills and trusts
- Understanding cross-border legal frameworks
- Preparing for valuation and jurisdictional challenges
Space law is still evolving. But the questions it raises are already here. As the space economy grows, so too will the need for clear, practical estate planning that reaches beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!