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The race is on to both fill our orbit with satellites that will help us communicate, educate and understand our planet; and land on other celestial bodies, including our Moon, to explore, learn and eventually prospect for resources that will allow human communities to thrive in space. Yet, even as we ramp up the technological capabilities of satellites and our capacity to inhabit celestial bodies, we do so under the guidance of an international law that proclaims the freedom of use and exploration for all humanity, with only limited restraints on activities.  Can we truly take advantage of all space has to offer under such an ambiguous regime? Can we find consensus on interpretation of the Outer Space Treaty regarding land use? Do we need new multilateral agreements to clarify such use?  What would be the appropriate oversight and enforcement regime necessary to ensure fair and equitable land apportionment and use? Can we have ownership without sovereignty? In this Beyond Earth workshop, our panel, along with the participants, will attempt to discuss some of the challenging aspects of ownership and property rights in space, and hopefully find some common ground.

NEW: Robert Brumley has prepared a lunar resource claim case study which will form the basis of discussion among the panelists. Download the case study here.

PROGRAM

Panel Discussion

Michelle Hanlon, Co-founder, For All Moonkind and Co-Director, Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi – Moderator Robert Brumley, Co-Founder & Chairman, Commstar Space Companies Christopher Borgen, Professor of Law & Co-Director, Center for International and Comparative Law at St. John’s University School of Law Michael Waltemathe, Senior Lecturer, Department of Protestant Theology at Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany

FEATURED SPEAKERS with BIOS

Michelle Hanlon is Co-Director of the Air and Space Law Program at the University of Mississippi School of Law and its Center for Air and Space Law. She is also a Co-Founder and President of For All Moonkind, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that is the only organization in the world focused on protecting human cultural heritage in outer space. For All Moonkind has been recognized by the United Nations as a Permanent Observer to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Michelle Chairs the International Committee of the National Space Society and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Law, the world’s oldest law journal dedicated to the legal problems arising out of human activities in outer space.   Robert (Bob) Brumley brings extensive executive experience in the management and financing of early stage ventures, particularly in aerospace, telecommunications and defense. In June, 2020, Bob and his colleagues at Marble Arch Partners, LLC and the executive team at the Laser Light Companies announced the launch of CommStar Space Communications, LLC, or CommStar. CommStar intends on deploying CommStar-1 in 2023 at an orbit location between the earth and the moon to serve as a high capacity, software-centric data relay satellite in the Cislunar Service Area. Bob was a Presidential Appointee (Senate Confirmed) in the Reagan Administration, serving in both terms. Amongst his duties in the Reagan Administration was Executive Director of the Commercial Space Working Group of the NSC and EPC. He is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.   Christopher J. Borgen is Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for International and Comparative Law at St. John’s University School of Law.  His areas of teaching include International Law, National Security and the Law, Space Law, International Environmental Law, and International Finance, among other courses.  His research considers the role of international law in addressing political and military conflicts and his scholarship has been published in the Chicago Journal of International Law, the German Yearbook of International Law, International Law Studies, the Yale Journal of International Law, and in other journals and volumes. Among other professional activities, he has served Co-Rapporteur for the International Law Association’s Committee on Recognition and Non-Recognition in International Law, was the principal author of Legal Aspects of the Separatist Crisis in Moldova, a report issued by the New York City Bar, and is currently a “core expert” for the Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Operations.   Michael Waltemathe is senior lecturer in the Department of Protestant Theology at Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany. He works in the field of Practical Theology and Religious Education. Michael is the Co-Principal Investigator for Interstellar Exploration and Society at the Interdisciplinary Center for Interstellar Exploration at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He also serves as an officer of the Astrosociology Research Institute and is a founding member of IASGAR, the International Academy for the Study of Gaming and Religion. After he finished his studies in Chemistry and Theology he received his doctorate in Theology with a dissertation on the use of Computer-Games in Religious Education. During the last decade Michael has been researching the connections between Religion and Space-Exploration. His work is focused on these connections in the history of spaceflight as well as in historic and contemporary theological, philosophical and ethical thought. Besides the anthology “Touching the face of the Cosmos. On the Intersection of Spaceflight and Religion”, which he co-edited with Paul Levinson, his publications include a monograph on computer-games and religion as well as articles on Space-Exploration, Science, Technology, Media, Art and Religion.