Law Commons^™

The Duty To “Expect The Unexpected”: Mitigating Extreme Natural Threats To The Global Commons Such As Asteroid Impacts With The Earth, Evan R. Seamone

Journal Articles

This Article develops a framework to govern the interactions of nations cooperating to mitigate the threat of unexpected natural disasters that potentially could affect them all. It uses asteroid impact with the Earth as the representative example because this is an "unusual and extreme" disaster that has created difficulty for lawmakers due to its many unanswerable questions. By explaining a number of the legal requirements necessary to mitigate such threats, this Article identifies legal principles that apply equally to natural threats throughout the global commons. The law involved in this analysis arises, in great part, from the judicial recognition of …