Space Law

3 credits · Law School

This course offers a survey of the rapidly expanding field of Space Law. The course opens with an overview of space law frameworks through a survey of international, US domestic, and comparative law materials, as well as private governance mechanisms. The course then will address specific topics including: commercialization; tourism; liability and insurance; militarization; satellite arrays and decommissioning; space debris; asteroid and planetary resource extraction; environmental impacts; and emerging/near term issues such as employment in space; business disputes in space; and property rights in space. The course will close with a survey of the future of space law, including space-based geoengineering and space settlement. In addition to several short reaction papers on select topics, students will identify a law or policy issue in the space law space and conduct a research project through several phases leading to a final short (2500 word) paper in the format and style of a professional bar journal article. Enrollment limited. [3]