Ownership of a meteorite

Abstract

The article examines a question of legal development that the Supreme Court of Cassation is about to answer. It has been presented with a case involving a dispute over ownership of a 141-kilogram iron meteorite that fell on the territory of Bulgaria. Due to the exceptional nature of the case and the many questions that may arise, the legal regime of the meteorite is examined in three aspects according to its natural trajectory: (1) from outer space, (2) through Earth’s airspace, and (3) to the Earth’s surface. At the same time, due to the question widely admitted by the Supreme Court of Cassation concerning the methods of acquiring ownership of such an object that are generally permitted by law, a comparative legal analysis has been made, on the basis of which separate groups of possible solutions have been identified. On this basis, the extent to which such an approach is permissible under the norms and principles of Bulgarian property law has been examined.