SPLAWG

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson recently noted that “space is not a ‘benign’ environment to support  warfighters, but a domain of warfighting in of itself.” The inhabitants of Alderaan and the Hosnian system found out how right she was. While destroying a planet is horrendous, to be sure, the exact context merits consideration when discussing the legal implications. There are some arguments that destroying planets is in harmony with the Outer Space Treaty . As Secretary Wilson stated, space is a domain of warfighting. Let’s consider what happens in war. Alderaan: Planet of Peace . . . or War? Alderaan is well known as a peaceful planet. Shortly before its destruction, Princess Leia plead that they had no weapons . But it was also home to two Senator who were key members of the rebellion - Bail and Leia Organa. In the events leading up to the Rebellion’s stealing of the Death Star plans, Bail Organa stated “Yes I agree, I must return to Alderaan to inform my peo...

That’s right, this little mastermind is going to the slammer. The only real question here isn’t about guilt, but punishment. So let’s get right to it. Ender’s entire life had been devoted to killing the buggers. Ender had the actus reus. Firing the particle demoleculorizer thing was voluntary and intentional – he reasoned through it. He had the correct mens rea, he fired the it with the intention and for the purpose of destroying the bugger’s planet. “But wait,” you’re probably thinking, “Ender didn’t know it was real life! He can’t be held responsible for annihilating an entire species of intelligent beings when he thought it was just a simulation.” Thinking real life is a videogame is a mistake of fact – not a valid excuse When it comes to mistakes, only mistakes of law (and sometimes hybrid mistakes – but those don’t make sense, so we’re not going to talk about them) are valid. The best example of this is SpongeBob. I’m sure you’re familiar with the Free Ballo...

Those not up-to-date on the world of claymation and it’s pioneers, Wallace and Gromit, catch up here . The tale of their Grand Day Out is one full of extraterrestrial . . . treaty breaking! (For the full list of Top 10 Space Crimes, go here .) The Story: Wallace takes advantage of the Moon So Wallace and his cunning pet Gromit are on the Moon. You know it’s the real moon because it’s made of cheese — “Moon-ster” most likely. On the Moon made of Moon-ster they encounter the Cooker: a mysterious vending-machine-security-guard robot planted on the Moon most likely by COPUOS, a mysterious bunch that hides behind an ominous acronym they say means “ Committee On the Peaceful Uses Of Space .” Once the Cooker is activated, it finds Wallace’s homemade rocket ship to be illegally parked on the Moon. The Cooker leaves a citation on the rocket ship. The Cooker next spies Wallace harvesting the moon-ster moon cheese. The Cooker doesn’t like that. Eventually, the Cooke...

Mars: The next frontier Elon Musk has been all over space news in recent years with his now famous goal to take humans to our red sister planet . Despite what you may think, he’s not the only one; MarsOne (debatably), NASA , and Mars Base Camp , all have plans to put humans on Mars in the next few decades. Though there are some very convincing skeptics ( Neil Degrasse Tyson ); many people, myself included, are excited to see if Space X can pull it off and to see the subsequent flux in space law . ( See here for more on Musk). There is just one problem.  Haven’t we already gone to Mars?  Didn’t Matt Damon already make it there?  Well, not exactly.  But he did play a convincing Martian.  Mark Watney — the lovable sarcastic astronaut, the man who stakes a personal claim to many firsts in space for humans, even being the first space pirate.   (Go here for the complete list of top 10 space crimes.) What it takes to be a space pirate (a.k.a Spirate...

Finally, an answer to the age-old question: Would Han be found guilty of the murder of Greedo the Young in a court of law. This article will show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Han Solo should be found ‘not guilty.’ (Go here for a list of the  Top 10 Space Crimes ) “But wait!” You should probably be thinking. “How can we know that? What are murder laws like in space?” The short answer is space is the final frontier, and therefore we developed the Intergalactic Multiverse Court to  fill in the gaps . And now, I'll beat both Coop and Dr. Strange to the gun by writing the first opinion. But first, look at little Greedo dancing 1. Lack of evidence against Mr. Solo The prosecution could potentially seek three distinct outcomes. First- or second-degree murder, or manslaughter. In all cases, they will have to prove all elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. If the prosecution seeks first-degree murder they will need to prove that the murder...