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Shaking The Foundations Of The Law: Some Legal Issues Posed By A Detection Of Extra-Terrestrial Life, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

In order to properly address the legal issues posed by a proper detection of extra-terrestrial life (not just a mere serious possibility, as with the recent discovery of actual water on Mars), because of its extraordinary character it is necessary to briefly revisit the foundations of ‘the law’ as a social construct, and explore its relationship to ‘ethics’ as another social construct. The type of ‘law’ being discussed here is, of course, man-made, and made to deal with human activities, including human reactions to (other) events. Human-made law has for example been defined as “the principles and regulations established in …