Human Rights Beyond Earth: Will Earth’s Laws Apply to Future Human Space Settlements?

With the world’s eagerness to undertake numerous endeavours for space exploration and with many success stories in the bag already, it is difficult not to daydream about humanity’s giant leap and the future of law in space. However, this idea is not just sci-fi anymore, with NASA’s Artemis[1] mission planning to create a long-term presence on the Moon, and private companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX aiming to create cities on Mars.[2] This idea is already alive in the minds of visionaries. But along with this, several legal questions also arise. Can countries even colonise other planets? If they do, what will happen to our rights and laws when humans settle on a whole other planet? Will they change completely? Or will they not exist at all on a different planet?

This blog explores the future of human space settlement from a legal perspective. Although it may seem too far-fetched to talk about human rights in outer space, but after all, the frameworks we design now will shape the future of human space settlement.

Now, the most important legal document for understanding international space law is the Outer Space Treaty[3], signed in 1967 and ratified by over 100 countries, including the USA, Russia, China, India, and the EU. The treaty, spanning across 17 articles, underlines certain important principles:[4]

• Article I: The first article recognises that space exploration is for all mankind’s benefit and must only be for peaceful purposes; it also lists space exploration and its use being “the province of all mankind.”
• Article II: It bars the claim of territory or sovereignty of any country in space. No planet is thus subject to national appropriation, unlike colonisation on Earth.
• Article III: All countries party to the treaty are directed to carry on the exploration and use in accordance with the UN Charter and international law.
• Article VI and VII: States are responsible for all national space activities (governmental and non-governmental), and states are liable for damages caused by their space objects.
• Article VIII: State retains jurisdiction and ownership over its space objects and personnel even in outer space.

Reading Article II, one question might pop up in the minds of the reader. How can humans settle in space without state sovereignty? Does the treaty bar human settlements in space?

But there is a simple answer to this. Even though no country can claim territory on any celestial body, humans can still live and operate there. This is similar to how research stations operate in Antarctica; no nation owns any land in Antarctica, but they can still build stations, live there and operate under their own laws. Thus, sovereignty is not required for settlement; it is only needed for claiming territory.

Additionally, the treaty was initially drafted to ensure peace in space and to bar the use of weapons of mass destruction and military activities in space. What the treaty does not mention is human rights, the possibility of long-term settlements, and legal perspectives.

So would human rights automatically apply in space?

Under the current space law, people in space can remain governed by the country whose spacecraft, station or settlement they belong to. Somewhat similar to how laws apply on ships or aircraft within international boundaries. For example, an Indian citizen in an Indian- registered space habitat would still be under Indian legal rights. This means that Earth-based human rights travel with people, but only as long as they remain tied to one nation. However, this system can face issues when a space settlement grows into a mixed-nationality colony. This creates a legal vacuum, as no state can claim control over extraterrestrial land, thus no state can enforce its constitution there. Thus, the usual territorial jurisdiction in a mixed nationality colony would not work beyond Earth.

This is where the real legal challenges begin. Current space law is designed for short-term missions, not permanent societies. Any future settlement will need legal agreements on issues like criminal law, labour rights, and human rights. Without such safeguards, settlers would become exposed to risks of exploitation, unsafe conditions or corporate dominance. For example, if a private company funds and controls a settlement, it could regulate every single aspect of the people’s life there, from access to oxygen to movement, unless an international treaty prevents this. Thus, human rights protections must evolve before or with space settlements, not after them. This raises a serious question: Will “disputes have to be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith at the time of the Martian settlement”, as Elon Musk states in his plans for a future Mars settlement?[5]

Not really, as having no established human rights and laws would mean exposing the people to hostile environments, an imbalance of political power, and violating the Outer Space Treaty. Eventually, this would mean that even if the settlers are governed by human rights and laws as on Earth, there would be an undeniable need to update and introduce new laws for a harmonious cohabitation.

What will be the new human rights that would need to be created?

Humans may need new categories of rights, such as:

• Right to Stable Air and Environment: In space, people would have to rely on artificial ecosystems, and this would transition into a right to ensure access to oxygen, safety from radiation, temperature control and proper energy supply to live.
• Right Against Forced Settlement: States might need to be barred from sending people, such as prisoners, refugees, to space without their consent.
• Right to Return: This right will be crucial in preventing forced one-way missions. Additionally, it is crucial to clarify that even if a person has consented to settle on a different planet, they can still return to Earth as per their choice. This would be a safeguard against forced relocation, experiments, abandonment, and exploitation.
• This will also require new UN space treaties, expansion of the Outer Space Treaty, multilateral agreements, and a possible model governance structure like that for the International Space Station (ISS).
• Several criminal and civil laws, including labour rights, constitutional rights and corporate rules, will need to be either created from scratch or updated according to the country’s existing laws.
• Apart from this, to solve the issues arising in jurisdiction over multi-national settlements, there can be several solutions: There can be a separate jurisdiction as per the settlement or module. This will be similar to what the world follows right now in regards to the ISS or Antarctic settlements. Following this, people living in a station or module belonging to India would be governed by India, and so forth for other countries. Another option can be a joint governance system where settlements and countries create a shared constitution or a joint code of conduct, similar to the ISS Intergovernmental Agreement.[6]

Ultimately, the question is not whether human rights will exist in space; they must. But how they evolve to fit the starkly different conditions of life in outer space. Whether we even need to think about laws for human settlements, which may or may not ever happen, is actually not something that is up for debate. Because space law has always been ahead of its time, the Outer Space Treaty was ahead of its time in establishing a legal framework for challenges that seemed barely possible in 1967. The ISS is already solid proof that humans can, in reality, live in space. Future space settlements, thus, if left legally unregulated, may become dominated by powerful nations or companies and lead to the creation of inequality far worse than that we face on Earth.

Existing treaties have already shown that human settlements are not a violation of law and that even presently, space endeavours must conform to international law and human rights of Earth. What a human space settlement will need is the creation of a just and fair legal system based on the existing human rights principles to tackle issues unique to space.

In the end, the question is not “Will our human rights exist beyond Earth?” but “Will we be able to ensure that our human rights and justice stay universal, regardless of the planet we stand on?”

 REFERENCES

Mike Gold, No, Mars Is Not a “Free Planet,” No Matter What SpaceX Says, SPACE NEWS (Oct. 30, 2020), https://spacenews.com/op-ed-no-mars-is-not-a-free-planet-no-matter-what-spacex-says/

NASA, 20 Years Ago: Station Partners Sign Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), https://www.nasa.gov/history/20-years-ago-station-partners-sign-intergovernmental-agreement-iga/ (last visited Dec. 8, 2025).

NASA, Artemis II Mission Overview, https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ (last visited Dec. 8, 2025).

SpaceX, Mars, SPACE X, https://www.spacex.com/humanspaceflight/mars (last visited Dec. 8, 2025).

Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, U.N. Doc. (1967), https://media.nti.org/documents/outer_space_treaty.pdf

U.N. Audiovisual Library of International Law, https://legal.un.org/avl/ha/tos/tos.html (last visited Dec. 8, 2025).

[1] NASA, Artemis II Mission Overview, https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ (last visited Dec. 8, 2025).

[2] SpaceX, Mars, https://www.spacex.com/humanspaceflight/mars (last visited Dec. 8, 2025).

[3] U.N. Audiovisual Library of International Law, https://legal.un.org/avl/ha/tos/tos.html (last visited Dec. 8, 2025).

[4] Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, U.N. Doc. (1967), https://media.nti.org/documents/outer_space_treaty.pdf

[5] Mike Gold, No, Mars Is Not a “Free Planet,” No Matter What SpaceX Says, SPACE NEWS (Oct. 30, 2020), https://spacenews.com/op-ed-no-mars-is-not-a-free-planet-no-matter-what-spacex-says/

[6] NASA, 20 Years Ago: Station Partners Sign Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), https://www.nasa.gov/history/20-years-ago-station-partners-sign-intergovernmental-agreement-iga/ (last visited Dec. 8, 2025).