Space Laws and Judicial system

[SteveCNC]

Hope this is a good place to discuss this , if not maybe politics

With the opening up of space to the commercial market new concerns about law/enforcement/judicial all comes into play . Since this is a new era in space I was wondering who exactly decides what the laws will be ? The nation who's flag is on the side of their craft ? The person who own's the craft ? (that last one could get interesting)

I was curious as I was reading another post about services in space and I thought hmm how will things like prostitution be dealt with if it were to happen or would it be completely legal ? Would drinking in space be legal and at what age ? Laws reguarding things like this vary greatly from state to state in the US and even more so internationally . So who decides these things ?

If say someone gets caught doing something illegal , what happens next ? Put them in a cage till transport to surface for trial ? you don't want a baddy loose in a space station right ? I figure once the population in space reaches over say 100 there will start to be issues , so who deals with them , I looked but didn't find anything that was conclusive at all .

 

[MeteorWayne]

Hi Steve,
It's the right place, but I might merge it with one of the many previous discussions on the general subject.

Wayne

 

[Yuri_Armstrong]

It will likely be considered International territory, similar to the open ocean. But countries who own space stations will probably have their own laws apply on those. As for now it's not really a problem but once there are space hotels and more than just one space station I do foresee some legal issues coming up.

 

[SteveCNC]

No problem Wayne , I searched for the word "law" in any title any forum but came up empty but if there's more info already I would enjoy seeing it .

I was curious because many things could occur in a very short time (by space standards) maybe 10-15 years even . I would guess since Bigelow is in Vegas he isn't against gambling at the least and of course anyone willing to gamble hundreds of millions on space venture must like gambling himself to some extent . Which leads to many other possibilities , I know most of the Vegas gambling stock is kinda down these days (I own a bunch) but that won't last forever and the Macau properties are paying well so I'm sure some investors from that neighborhood will be there once there's enough business to support it . And along with that will come other things

Perhaps there needs to be a country called space formed where any disputes over anything (orbital position or any other kind of thing ) whatever the case , there can never be a war over space . With the potential population explosion in front of us should transport costs go way down , plus I don't see people paying for a trip up there to only stay a couple days , your going to stay a lot longer since the cost per day is far less than the trip there and back , there comes a need to govern .

I guess a lot depends on how big of a complex ends up being built , say if bigelow sent up 25 BA-330 modules plus some interconnection and propulsion modules that could house maybe 100 people plus accomodate support systems etc ... If I was him I'd set my office up in the middle somewhere but that would require security and the ability to deal with even the possibility of a terrorist getting up there . People when in space are far more vulnerable to bad stuff happening then when on earth and it's not that safe here so I would have to say you might have to give up some rights we enjoy here on earth , at the very least would be subjected to a full body scan before getting on board to go up there .

Plus there's also a possibility of surface to space missile shot , easy enough to figure out who did it but who shoots back ?

It seems like these things can't just be assumed , they need to be dealt with in a timely fashion .

 

[EarthlingX]

Older threads concerning space law issues :

Legal aspects of space launches

Property and Mineral Rights to spurl space dev.

The Outer Space Treaty