Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there

Law doesn't come from (or shouldn't come from) unqualified legislators guessing about what the future will be like and what problems will be there. Law comes from when somebody has a grievance against somebody else, and society steps in to resolve it.

Could you imagine how bad it would be if Congress got excited about the potential for internet crime in 1985, tried to guess the form of the problems that would arise, and then wrote laws banning and permitting things that they thought would lead to trouble? There is no way somebody back then could predict which situations would lead to trouble decades later.

The best way to deal with space would probably be to let judges stretch earth law (property rights, whatever) to produce as much justice as possible, and then modifying the laws once the lessons had been borne out.

Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there

#6

Post by nerdponx » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:15 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #5

Law doesn't come from (or shouldn't come from) unqualified legislators guessing about what the future will be like and what problems will be there. Law comes from when somebody has a grievance against somebody else, and society steps in to resolve it. Could you imagine how bad it would be if Congress got excited about the potential for internet crime in 1985, tried to guess the form of the problems that would arise,…

Isn't that pretty much what the US Constitution was?

Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there

#7

Post by BeefySwain » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:17 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #5

Law doesn't come from (or shouldn't come from) unqualified legislators guessing about what the future will be like and what problems will be there. Law comes from when somebody has a grievance against somebody else, and society steps in to resolve it. Could you imagine how bad it would be if Congress got excited about the potential for internet crime in 1985, tried to guess the form of the problems that would arise,…

So this sounds great in theory, but there are a number of ways that I can think of where it falls short.

Tragedy of the commons issues are ones that often largely too late to easily solve by the time enough public pressure has built up to force legislative oversight. Social injustice issues are the same.

That being said, I agree that overzealous legislators making pot shots at potential issues is not a good solution either. My thought would be meet halfway with predictive laws with sunset clauses? That way, if a mistake is made, it will be undone in a predictable timescale without the need to get an oft deadlocked congress to take action.

Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there

#8

Post by whatshisface » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:24 PM UTC

BeefySwain wrote: post #7

whatshisface wrote: post #5

Law doesn't come from (or shouldn't come from) unqualified legislators guessing about what the future will be like and what problems will be there. Law comes from when somebody has a grievance against somebody else, and society steps in to resolve it. Could you imagine how bad it would be if Congress got excited about the potential for internet crime in 1985, tried to guess the form of the problems that would arise,…

So this sounds great in theory, but there are a number of ways that I can think of where it falls short. Tragedy of the commons issues are ones that often largely too late to easily solve by the time enough public pressure has built up to force legislative oversight. Social injustice issues are the same. That being said, I agree that overzealous legislators making pot shots at potential issues is not a good solution…

Laws aren't so easy to sunset even if they have sunset clauses. Whoever benefits from the legislative mistakes will grow to be more powerful than whoever is being pinched by them, and then they'll lobby like nothing else to keep the laws the same. One example would be H&R block, which was created by a complex tax code and works very hard to keep it that way.

As for the tragedy of the commons, if your mining operation negatively impacts mine by messing up a shared resource, I can sue you right away. The lack of a legal framework doesn't mean that everything is legal, at least under US tradition; it means that the civil courts decide.

Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there

#9

Post by whatshisface » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:31 PM UTC

nerdponx wrote: post #6

whatshisface wrote: post #5

Law doesn't come from (or shouldn't come from) unqualified legislators guessing about what the future will be like and what problems will be there. Law comes from when somebody has a grievance against somebody else, and society steps in to resolve it. Could you imagine how bad it would be if Congress got excited about the potential for internet crime in 1985, tried to guess the form of the problems that would arise,…

Isn't that pretty much what the US Constitution was?

It would have been if the US was the first country.

Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there

#10

Post by milesskorpen » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 3:59 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #5

Law doesn't come from (or shouldn't come from) unqualified legislators guessing about what the future will be like and what problems will be there. Law comes from when somebody has a grievance against somebody else, and society steps in to resolve it. Could you imagine how bad it would be if Congress got excited about the potential for internet crime in 1985, tried to guess the form of the problems that would arise,…

Jurisdiction might prove a challenge here (state/federal courts?) but we already deal with this kind of things on oceans so I'm sure we'll muddle through like we usually do.