Today we discuss Space Crime #9, which examines the actions of one Dr. Mann in the film Interstellar — by actions, I mean pretty much everything he does in the movie. Anyone who’s seen it knows that Mann messed up (pun intended). So, logically the next question is just what would happen if Mann, or rather his estate (*spoiler alert* he dies), were taken to court.
To begin:
- He falsified the data about his “habitable” planet
- He tried to kill his fellow space travelers and actually succeeded with one of them
- And he damaged their ship the Endurance in his suicidal attempt to manually dock their other ship
To make sure that he gets his day in court we need to figure out (1) where a case could be brought and (2) what the claims would be.
Proper Forum
The first question we have got to address is where this case can be brought. Article VIII of the United Nations Outer Space Treaty states, a nation that launches anything into space “shall retain jurisdiction and control over such object, and over any personnel thereof, while in outer space or on a celestial body.”
So, which nation launched these guys into space? Hm, I wonder if these US flags are a clue.
To narrow it down to which court in the U.S., though, is harder. In one of the early scenes in the movie, Cooper takes Murph to a baseball game, and on the side of the stadium it says “The World Famous New York Yankees.”
So New York is probably a reasonable guess for where Cooper is from. Where Dr. Mann is from (and we’re gonna assume for these purposes that it is the same place as NASA since he probably spent a lot of time there) is a little harder: all we know is that Cooper drives for a while to get there and there’s a shot of his map in the movie but it doesn’t seem to be, um . . . real.
Still, Dr. Mann must have spent a lot of time with NASA, resulting in the parties residing in the same state; so that rules out diversity jurisdiction, which leaves “arising under” a federal question jurisdiction. In order to achieve arising under jurisdiction, they will need to bring a claim involving federal law.
Also, to be noted. They could bring the claim in New York state court, so long as Dr. Mann has minimum contacts there.
Claims
So if we are stuck with a state court and state law, there are a few different options. But while Dr. Mann would almost definitely be found guilty under criminal law, you can’t drag a dead man into criminal court.
Even without this, though, you can still sue his estate. So that would probably be the best bet. Here are just a few of the more obvious claims to make:
- Assault and battery claims by Cooper and Romilly
- Negligence in docking the ship.
- Fraud, for Mann’s misrepresentation of his planet’s viability
- Potential breach of contract with NASA
- and much, much more!
However, the question we really want to answer is if there is any applicable space law:
Unfortunately, the UN Outer Space treaty doesn’t do much in addressing the possibility of space crime. There is an “International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities” in the works that might address this but is incomplete and unavailable. So we can’t use that yet. Nor has the U.S. Congress really passed much legislation on this subject, if any.
Basically, there’s a complete lack of precedent and of real foundation for space law. But there are some options for the future. One option would be to simply extend some of the above-mentioned claims into space through Congressional law-making (remember, the U.S. under the Outer Space Treaty still has jurisdiction over anything it sends into space!). That same hypothetical statute could even great a federal cause of action to meet federal “arising under” jurisdiction. Easy solution, right? And with plenty of room to accommodate our growing space crime needs.
For now, though, I advocate a Regina v. Dudley & Stephens approach. 14 Q.B.D. 273 (Queen’s Bench Division. 1884). In that case, four men were adrift in a small boat on the high seas and (to skip the gory details) two of those men chose to kill a third in order to stay alive. Turns out, though, that they ended up being rescued and were later found guilty of murder despite their claim of necessity. Now, space is to us what the high seas were to those men - something untamed and largely out of our control. There is even a “Moon Treaty” (referenced in The Martian) that isn’t yet ratified but that, if applicable, would require maritime law in space. So it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to hold Dr. Mann to a similar standard.
In the end, though, we will just have to wait and see what the future, and more particularly SpaceX, brings. Till then we will have to glean a few more ideas from the rest of the Top 10 Space Crimes that science fiction has given us!
By Shelise Rupp
By Shelise Rupp
Future Reading:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2036
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