French monarch Louis XIV was known as the Sun King, with all his capitalization and absolutist grandeur. But strictly speaking, this title belongs to another person, and neither to the priest king Cuahtémoc, the great governor of the Aztecs, nor to the Egyptian emperor Henry III. It belongs to Amenhotep. If the Star King has a lady and a ruler—or at least he claims to do so—it’s Angeles DuranOn a beautiful day in 2010, a Galician decided to do something no one had ever done in thousands of years of human history: he left his home in Salvaterra do Miño, in the Vigo region, and stopped at a notary’s office. He will prepare an official record that he and no one else declares himself the legitimate and rightful owner of the Sun.

The good notary couldn’t help but laugh when he heard that, but he had no choice but to consult the professional association and actually sign the minutes of what that lady said. Since then, Ángeles Durán’s story has taken on crazy tones worthy of a good astro-legal thriller.I requested.

I am the owner of the sun

That’s how Ángeles Durán declared himself, a Galician who surprised the world in 2010 by declaring himself the owner of the Sun. And no, we’re not talking figuratively. News was advanced at that time Voice of GaliciaHe described how Durán went to a notary in a neighboring town in the Vigo region to draw up a record that he was the legal owner of the Solar System axis. If this became news – and it did, making headlines in foreign media – it was because of the outcome rather than the event itself. Durán then left the office with a document that he did not mind posing for the cameras.

In the statement minutes, the following statements are included: “I am the owner of the Sun, a spectral type G2 star located at the center of the solar system, at an average distance of 149 million 600 thousand kilometers from the Earth…” notary’s seal. Galicia newspaper, the official made him laugh After hearing Durán’s claims, he still checked with his school and eventually confirmed that the woman before him had declared herself the legitimate owner of the Sun.

Since then, much has been said about Durán: that he was a lawyer and psychologist, that he worked as a forensic expert at the time, and that he even published Voice of Galicia At the end of last year, Dr. was living in Northern Italy and devoted to preparing a book about the British royal family. What there is no doubt is that he spent time planning his strategy to declare himself owner of the Sun; While more or less true, what is undeniable is that his request is based on a legal argument that he put forward in his time and still puts forward. It continues in front of the Cuatro cameras in 2019.

return to Roman law

Galician law was essentially based on two pillars: a legal vacuum and a legal figure with origins in Roman law. The first concerns the international agreement that no country can seize planets. For Durán, the key lies in this nuance: He argues that just because it affects states does not mean it also extends to individuals.

The second key is usurpation, which allows a person to obtain the real right to the elements that he has benefited from for a certain period of time. And there was Durán has been providing benefits for decades Like almost 8,000 million other people living on this vast planet, true, but no one had ever thought of raising him in a notary this way.

It created a leak. At least that’s what Durán thought. “I didn’t buy Sun because no one sold it to me. I made a promissory note called usufruct,” he insisted in an interview in Cuatro in 2019, assuring that the figure could be used “by the parties.” electromagnetic anxiety.”

The truth is that Durán is not the first person to do something similar. Decades ago, Dennis Hope, an American businessman, claimed to have found a legal loophole that allowed him to claim sovereignty of the Moon. His argument was very similar to the Galician’s: The hope was based on an old 19th-century law drafted by American pioneers that said the Outer Space Treaty did not affect individuals.

What is most intriguing is that the Sun is not the only property Durán claims; but the thing that takes the cake the most in terms of size, meaning and impact is definitely the Sun. The Galician made other equally interesting visits to the General Register of Intellectual Property. World And Country They reiterated Tarzan’s scream, the “longest note in the world”, 24,000 million bars, and how he made phone-related recordings.

“Every time you dial a number, notes play, and no one recorded them,” he explained in 2010. “If you dial 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, you’ve done a few bars and every possible combination. I recorded them all under my name.”

A small plot in the sun…

Durán was not happy to declare himself the owner of Astro Rey. He decided to go one step further and cut out the vast expanse of the star and sell the land on eBay. He managed to market nearly a hundred star plots on the first day. As announced at the time, 10,000 solar portions were offered, each with its own certificate. For one euro, anyone can buy a piece of star. It might not seem like much, but considering the Sun’s diameter is 1.4 million km, it’s not bad at all.

eBay was not convinced by the division and sale of the star and blocked the sale. This was at least reported by Durán, who was convinced by his arguments and took the American online trading giant to court. and asked for 10,000 euros. There is no record of whether the judge on duty reacted similarly to the reaction of the Galician notary who registered Sol, but the case was concluded in the Alcobendas 5th First Instance Court. The case was accepted for processing, and at least in July 2015, both parties were unable to agree on settlement legislation, so they were doomed to face each other in court months later. Excelsior He claims the court dismissed the case.

The legal soap opera could have ended there, but the story of Ángeles Durán and his alleged possession of the Sun still spawned several more episodes. While telling his story in 2010 Voice of Galicia The Galician woman said that one of the possibilities she had was to charge a fee for the use of solar energy, and assured that only 10% of the fee would be kept. The rest would go into the public coffers and be dedicated to socially oriented causes.

“If you’re paying for rivers, why not for this?” he thought. In 2022 and after all the turmoil that has ensued, he has assured me that he never will. He threatened to collect taxes He told citizens that “the scenario he was working in” at the time focused on electric companies. That didn’t stop media outlets from repeating his case. Telegram, Clarion, time,CBS News, Washington Post any Daily Mail.

This is not the end of Durán’s soap opera. The Sun may be very large, very important, unique, the key to the Solar System, but in terms of ownership it is the same as any piece of land: it implies responsibilities as well as rights. And in 2015, a citizen who blamed the Galician for injuries caused by the Sun resorted to the latter: “My eyes are red and there are burns, I went to the emergency room, I have photos to prove it. I will try to do this.” “I must not reach an agreement or I will go to court,” he warned.

While Durán’s reaction was in line with that of many others in property liability lawsuits, the extent of his case was this. quite a few much bigger: Durán argued that it was his neighbor’s fault, not his. “People think they can complain to me, but the Sun is not responsible for cancer, it is the pollution that destroys the ozone layer. By the same logic, I can ask them for compensation for the food they eat,” he emphasized.

Picture | NASA/SDO

in Xataka | Japan hates the sneakiest tourist trap of all: Super Mario karts that refuse to die

in Xataka | South Korea, which has for years had the world’s most catastrophic birth rate, is facing something unexpected: it’s growing

*An earlier version of this article was published in November 2023.