Here's an email I received, almost verbatim, from David Brett Wasser (I left the links, I removed the entire text of the Boston Globe article from the email):

There is a new paper in the Journal of Air Law and Commerce and a new article in the Boston Globe that I want to bring to your attention. They deal with the following topic: Can real estate on the Moon be legally claimed, owned, and resold here on earth, without violating international laws?

This is an incredibly important issue because real estate would be a catalyst for privately funded space development. Without the ownership of Lunar real estate there is little economic incentive for private industry to invest the billions of dollars to get there - and stay there.

The article, entitled "Space Settlements, Property Rights, and International Law: Could a Lunar Settlement Claim the Lunar Real Estate It Needs to Survive?" appears in the new issue of the SMU Journal of Air Law and Commerce:

http://www.space-settlement-institute.org/Articles/jal73-1Wasser.pdf

Dave Wasser

Space Settlement Institute

Austin, TX

Here is the Boston Globe article about it...  http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/05/18/my_space/