3.10.2006
Astrolaw advice for NASA
"'Must share.' 'No murder.' 'No stealing.' 'Equal rights for everyone.' 'No gender-based hiring.' 'No prostitution.' 'No slavery.'
Want to know what future moon law will look like? It's simple. Just ask high school students.
NASA did. Folks from Langley met with kids from the Legal Studies Academy at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach "to study space law" one day in December (and yes I'm just hearing about this now, which is serendipitous, I've already posted a couple of space law education related items this week) and here's a somewhat belated article from Virginia's DailyPress.com (apparently they just heard about it too).
(The article even refers to astrolaw, a term I have not heard in many moons...)
It's a super idea to talk with 21st century high school students about space law. As seasoned business and space law practitioner Ken Weidlaw, panelist on a first-ever CLE program in space law (coming to Pennsylvania this month, as I blogged here), expressed in an e-mail to me this week, he wants to "generate interest with the younger attorneys and law students in this up and coming legal area." And it all starts in grade school and high school.
So were any lawyers on hand when NASA met with future space-faring kids to contemplate law? According to the before-the-fact press release, San Francisco attorney and former chief counsel at NASA Ames Research Center, J. Henry Glazer, was invited to "introduce students to NASA's Vision for Space Exploration and various international treaties that govern space exploration."
By the way, the students informed NASA we will need Bowflex exercise machines on the moon; also, "comfort food" because astronaut ice cream tastes like "silly putty." I agree on both counts, although I'm not sure we'd necessarily legislate those items. And what about sex? Apparently, there was a split of authority over the advisability of this sort of activity. Hmm. Kids, maybe some things are not the business of space law? And other things will, no doubt, work themselves out... over time.
Want to know what future moon law will look like? It's simple. Just ask high school students.
NASA did. Folks from Langley met with kids from the Legal Studies Academy at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach "to study space law" one day in December (and yes I'm just hearing about this now, which is serendipitous, I've already posted a couple of space law education related items this week) and here's a somewhat belated article from Virginia's DailyPress.com (apparently they just heard about it too).
(The article even refers to astrolaw, a term I have not heard in many moons...)
It's a super idea to talk with 21st century high school students about space law. As seasoned business and space law practitioner Ken Weidlaw, panelist on a first-ever CLE program in space law (coming to Pennsylvania this month, as I blogged here), expressed in an e-mail to me this week, he wants to "generate interest with the younger attorneys and law students in this up and coming legal area." And it all starts in grade school and high school.
So were any lawyers on hand when NASA met with future space-faring kids to contemplate law? According to the before-the-fact press release, San Francisco attorney and former chief counsel at NASA Ames Research Center, J. Henry Glazer, was invited to "introduce students to NASA's Vision for Space Exploration and various international treaties that govern space exploration."
By the way, the students informed NASA we will need Bowflex exercise machines on the moon; also, "comfort food" because astronaut ice cream tastes like "silly putty." I agree on both counts, although I'm not sure we'd necessarily legislate those items. And what about sex? Apparently, there was a split of authority over the advisability of this sort of activity. Hmm. Kids, maybe some things are not the business of space law? And other things will, no doubt, work themselves out... over time.
