'Free Trade Zone Concepts' and Space Development
- Paper ID
4337
- author
- company
O.S.I., Management, Inc
- country
United States
- year
2006
- abstract
Private and public sector boundaries might be productively redrawn, and private and public sector initiatives stimulated, by employing the concept of ‘free trade zones’ in space loci, particularly and soon on the moon. FTZ’s have a centuries old history. Such arrangements in space could foster experimentation in the internal structures of the established zones, decentralizing rule sets for space activities. FTZ entities, having durable charters if developed, with published rule sets, could provide targets for mobilization of resources across national boundaries, with potential benefits for globally distributed entities participating as capital providers for, suppliers to, and purchasers from the FTZ users. Four authors with diverse backgrounds will outline how such FTZ systems could be organized, explore the relationships of the FTZ concepts with existing space law and space institutions, and explore how impediments to creation and operation of FTZ’s might be removed.