Towards a New Regime for the Protection of Outer Space as the "Province of All Mankind"

In the year 2004, the planned $60 billion International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to be completed, extending over an area almost as large as three football fields, and its laboratory and living modules will have as much room as two Boeing 747 jumbojets. The ISS will usher in a multinational human presence in space and will be a world community living and working together in space. As science progresses in leaps and bounds, international law governing the exploration and use of outer space limps forlornly behind. As we move to colonize the "province of all mankind," the accompanying dangers become more apparent.

It has often been questioned whether international law can contribute more than lofty aspirations, general principles, or broad frameworks. This Article argues that international law must replace its language of normativity, and a vocabulary of treaty rules and customary norms, with a new rhetoric of cooperation and implementation in building a new regime for the protection of the outer-space environment in the new millennium.