The circumstances of justice for the new space age: Distributive justice, scarcity and global governance

Justice is fundamental to the Earth System Governance (ESG) literature, yet its application remains largely terrestrial. While scholarship has begun expanding ESG's scope to outer space, this paper identifies two critical challenges that impede this transition: the myth of resource abundance and unilateral governance regimes. To resolve the first obstacle, I introduce a definition of “New Space,” conceptualized through its contemporary ecosystem of diverse actors, activities, purposes, and places. I demonstrate how this lens debunks the myth of abundance by revealing that localized scarcity is an inherent feature of outer space resources, thereby activating the circumstances of justice. I then address the second obstacle by arguing that unilateral national legislation and first-possession legal proposals are structurally incompatible with distributive fairness, as they fail to establish an impartial architecture capable of resolving trans-jurisdictional conflict. By neutralizing these two barriers, this paper establishes a prolegomenon for any future theory of distributive justice for outer space governance.