Space-faring nations have agreed to a variety of policies and treaties that concern activities in space exploration. 

As soon as humans reached for the stars, some reached for the law books. In the year after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the United Nations General Assembly created an ad hoc Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOUS). In 1960, the International Institute of Space Law, a nongovernmental organization, was created to promote international cooperation in the space law-making process. Today, several universities worldwide offer programs and degrees in space law.

The field of space law evolved to deal with questions such as property rights, weapons in space, protection of astronauts and other matters. However, space law remains a challenging field to define. While there are treaties that have been voluntarily signed by many nations, technological advances mean that private companies can now take part in space exploration, and these entities may not be covered under some existing treaties (depending on one's legal interpretation of them). Also, national priorities change over time, and those priorities may not be reflected in treaties that were created decades ago.