2.2. Arguments for Invalidating the "Extraterrestrial Real Estate" Claims
The first reason for invalidating the claims presented above is the lack of corpus possidendi. In the acquisition of possession, two concurrent elements - "the mind" and "the body" are required. One is insufficient without another; there must be "both an intention to take the thing and some act of a physical nature giving effect to that intention25". The first element required is the animus possidendi, the intention to possess. However, Dennis Hope can not own the Moon just because he wants to. He lacks the second element required in the acquisition of possession, namely the corpus possidendi; without an act of physical nature giving effect to the intention to take the thing, animus is insufficient. The Scottish jurist Stair has explained this in very illustrative terms: "if any act of the mind were enough, possession would be very large and but imaginary.26" As large as the Solar System, in the case of Hope, that has a very valid animus, but no corpus at all.
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The land survey markers actually in the ground are taken as proof.
Interesting that Mao Tse Tung made his career in public administration by going around to the various land records offices, emptying out the file cabinets and torching the land records. He also pulled up survey markers wherever he found them.
Is this who will conquer space? Communists who don't recognize private property?