The Romans had this concept of "possession". You can own something but if someone else possesses it for a long enough time, it is theirs. They also talked abou

The Romans had this concept of "possession". You can own something but if someone else possesses it for a long enough time, it is theirs. They also talked about "De Jure"(In theory) and "De facto"(in practice). You could subvert the law if you do not apply it or apply it selectively. Communist are experts on that. For example, Lenin called elections. When he lost them, he just made a coup d'etat and took power(De facto), then he will name everything as "democratic"(De jure), the government of the people and so on. A similar strategy as Napoleon, that declared himself against monarchy and declared himself Emperor (De facto) later(while being republican in theory). Another example is Venezuela. It is a democracy "De jure", but a dictatorship "de facto". The entities that occupy Mars (or Venus) and take possession of it will own it de facto. Who cares about what lawyers say in another planet?