The Common Heritage of Mankind: The Concept and Application in International Law

International developments and in particular new international economic order led to the creation of “the Common Heritage of Mankind” and consists of five elements: non-appropriation, use it for peaceful purposes and benefit of mankind, sharing its management and benefits. Developing and developed states took opposing positions and had different interpretation about its content. This concept is relatively new in international law and during the last decades has attracted considerable attention and generated polemical debate in international forums. This has been especially true of the CHM’s application to the legal status of resources in “common spaces areas”, and applied too in other issues. Nevertheless, due to substantial confusion over the nature of the concept and its appropriate place in international law; and different interpretations, it lacks legal force. It is a philosophical idea that questions the regimes of globally important resources regardless of their situation, and requires major changes in the world to apply its provisions. Its application and enforcement require a critical reexamination of many well-established principles and doctrines of classical international law.This article aims at exploring the legal theory and the implications of the concept of CHM. The author by a normative methodology seeks to provide tentative answers to the questions whether and how concept can be incorporated into the corpus of international law as a legal norm.The author concludes that can be postulated about the present status of the CHM concept is that it may indicate an emergence general principle of international law. It is supportable and applicable with human rights and in particular the third generation of human rights (collective or solidarity rights) and then is an universal duty and imperative rule.