Elinor Ostrom Goes to Outer Space - An Association of Space Appropriators

Abstract

Before 2009, the literature on space law simply alleged that the growing population of space debris congesting near-Earth orbits is analogous to Garrett Hardin's 'Tragedy of the Commons'. These works, however, failed to illustrate how, if at all, the metaphorical model fits the actual situation and, in turn, explain the challenges involved to address the debris problem 1 . The implication was that Earth's near orbits is a 'common-pool resource' (CPR) that would suffer from the hypothesised 'tragedies' like all natural resources held in common; that is to say, the environmental degradation and eventual ruin of the resource. To address these concerns, this author has elsewhere scrutinised Hardin's works and commons solutions in the context of the space debris problem, verifying the arguments from earlier commentators that near-Earth orbits is a 'Space Commons' that is susceptible to environmental degradation caused by rational, opportunistically space actors misusing and overexploiting the limited natural resources. An attempt to determine the appropriateness and feasibility of applying Hardin's commons prescriptions to avert the 'tragedy' by converting the institutional arrangement of outer space from the existing common-property regime to either a private-property or public-property system has also been undertaken. However, challenging the conventional wisdom postulated by Hardin and his disciples is Elinor Ostrom, who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her analyses and works in economic governance 2 . Supported by empirical evidence, she argues for 'polycentric governance', or 'community-based governance' 3 . Under certain conditions community users of the CPR could effectively promote and maintain the long-term preservation of the resource for the benefit of both present and future generations by constructing their regime framework; hereby minimising or even eliminating the necessity for intervention from the government or some external authority.To complete this inquiry for alternative institutional arrangement to govern outer space, this Paper considers Ostrom's works to yield insights if her framework for institutional design could provide a robust governance regime that promotes the optimal management and long-term safety and sustainability of the Space Commons for current and future space appropriators. To that end, this Paper is divided into three * PhD Candidate from the School of Law, University of Manchester (UK). LLB from the School of Law, University of the West of England, Bristol (UK).

Toward the degrowth of the economics of orbital space and space debris: A preliminary theoretical application in low-Earth orbit

“…Finally, this RCE model supports a scale up of Ostrom's Work (Lambach & Wesel, 2021;Chaddha, 2013;Weeden and Chow, 2012), through collective decision-making and information sharing. As we have seen before, privatization is not a possible option and the current centralized and independent initiatives failed to mitigate space debris.…”

“…The main finding is that there is a failure or even an absence of institutions to improve the space rights regimes developed during the Cold War. Moreover, Ostrom's work for managing global commons required adjustments and scaling-up as her study design was conducted from local resources (Chaddha, 2013). To move beyond these limitations, Lambach and Wesel (2021) suggested a system of polycentric governance.…”

Assessing the State of ICZM in an Island Tourist Destination—Applying SESs and Ostrom’s Collective Action Principles: A View from Coastal Communities

“…All acts that go contrary to, or threaten the sustainability of, coastal zones and the aims of ICZM must be spelt out and publicly available to all stakeholders. Sanctions should be weighed against violators including community members, real estate firms, developers, and individual properties in and around the coastal areas [54,55].…”