PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Space Technol.
Sec. Space Economy
This article is part of the Research TopicOuter space - Is it a global commons?View all 7 articles
Is space a Global Common? - Declining international acceptance of the commons narrative applied to space limits its utility in the development of global space governance
Provisionally accepted
Peter Martinez*
Christopher D. Johnson- Secure World Foundation, Broomfield, United States
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The notion of space as some sort of global common has been around since before the dawn of the Space Age and this notion has continued to be asserted by various commentators from time to time, most recently often in the context of space resource utilization. But, is space really a "global common" that "belongs" to all of humanity? This article discusses the concept of global commons as traditionally defined, understood, and applied on Earth. Then we review the evolution of commons-type language in multilateral documents and transpose the concept of the commons to the space domain, arguing that, while the freedom to engage in the activity of access and use outer space is a right held by all states under international space law, the domains of space themselves are not global commons or other such social constructs. Indeed, such constructs are mutable and not always correlated with peaceful, sustainable or prosperous uses of shared resources across history.
Keywords: commons, Global commons, Outer space treaty, Space governance, Space resources, sustainable development
Received: 13 Oct 2025; Accepted: 15 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Martinez and Johnson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Peter Martinez
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