Law In Space

Space shuttle Atlantis is poised to deliver the European lab module, Columbus, to the ISS. With it will come another complication of the laws governing humans beyond Earth.

Astronauts on space missions are not beyond the law. Apollo lunar astronauts, for example, remained within U. S. jurisdiction, even though, by treaty, the United States could not claim the Moon as its territory. On ISS, natiomal sovereignty, and therefore national law, rides with the modules-- Russian law governs in the Russian module, Japanese in the Japanese, and U. S. in the American. That said, in some areas of law, such as patens, the law can go with the nationality of the inventor-- except when the module in which most of the work was done is a factor. The situation will be further complicated with the arrival Columbus, which is a project not of any single nation, but of the European Space Agency.

Such a legal patchwork might be acceptable when only a few people are involved, but as the human presence beyond Earth grows and diversifies, some sort of unified legal code might be more appropriate. Otherwise, trial lawyers stand to inherit another huge profit stream.