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in the air and helping me look fly.
Humans have been jetting off into space
since April 12th, 1961, when Russian lieutenant
Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth.
Alan Shepard became the first American
to enter space less than a month later.
Yes, that's right, the Russians
beat us to space by less than a month, but who's counting?
We didn't wanna be first in space anyway.
It's cold and it's dark up there.
Human space travel is just a couple of years shy
of celebrating its 60th birthday,
which means 60 years of weightlessness,
freeze-dried food, and figuring out
how to use the bathroom without any gravity.
However, despite more than 50 years
of humans traveling to and living in space,
NASA has never had to address the issue of space pirates.
No, I'm just kidding, space crime.
But space crime is really crazy and interesting, too.
What happens when a crime is committed in space?
Who has jurisdiction?
Who are the space police?
And where is space jail?
These are the questions we're going to answer today.
(light trumpet music)
Hey Legal Eagles, it's time to think like a lawyer.
And today we are dealing with potentially
the first case of space crime.
Summer Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer,
has accused her ex-spouse Anne McClain,
a decorated NASA astronaut, of identity theft
and improper access to private financial records.
When Worden became suspicious of McClain,
she asked her bank to trace the location of any computers
that had recently accessed her bank account
using her own login credentials.
One of those computers, it turned out,
was in outer space aboard the International Space Station.
Acknowledging that she had indeed accessed Worden's account
while in outer space, McClain defended her actions
and claimed that she was merely
taking care of the couple's intermingled finances.
Nonetheless, Worden filed a complaint
with the Federal Trade Commission
and her family filed yet another complaint
with NASA's Office of Inspector General.
Both could be historic in that they contain
the first allegation of criminal wrongdoing in space.
So let's talk about the history of space law.
The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities
of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space
including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies,
or the Outer Space Treaty, as it is more commonly known,
was entered into by 105 different parties in 1967.
The treaty was essentially the Magna Carta of space law.
It established general principles
for the international use of and exploration of space,
favored commercial activities in space,
and sought to ensure that the exploration of outer space
could be conducted only for the benefit of all countries.
Article six of the Outer Space Treaty
also emphasized that all nations would, quote,
"bear international responsibility
"for national activities in space,
"whether these activities were carried out
"by governmental or private parties."
Since entering into this international agreement,
the United States has substantially developed
its own national space law.
Most recently, the extensive US space laws
were recodified in 2010 in Title 51 of the US code,
which was enacted to transfer a number of statutes
dealing with national space programs
into a single place in the United States code.
While Title 51 addresses a number of space-related areas,
it does not discuss criminal acts in space.
Title 51 does, however, contain a blanket statement
which presumably forbids any sort of criminal activity.
Quote, "This civil space station
"may be used only for peaceful purposes."
51 USC, section 70901.
But what about the International Space Station?
The International Space Station
was placed into orbit in 1984 by the United States,
and other nations were invited to participate
in its development and use.
In order to facilitate cooperation
among the participating nations,
Canada, the European partner states,
Japan, Russia, and the United States,
signed the agreement concerning cooperation
on the International Space Station in 1998.
Article 22 of the agreement also outlined
criminal jurisdiction aboard the ISS,
and determined that each participating nation,
quote, "may exercise criminal jurisdiction
"over personnel in or on any flight element
"who are their respective nationals."
But what actually happens when a crime
is committed onboard the ISS?
To date, we're still not entirely sure.
But in discussing criminal jurisdiction in space,
many scholars have equated intergalactic crimes
with those committed in Antarctica or at sea
in an attempt to consider what actual development
space law would look like,
and, of course, to avoid common pitfalls.
By way of analogy, the Antarctic Treaty
was signed in 1959 by 12 nations
whose scientists had been working on the continent.
To date, there are a total of 54 parties
to that particular treaty.
Similarly to the respective jurisdictional rules
which govern the International Space Station,
the Antarctic Treaty provides that, quote,
"observers, scientific personnel, and members of the staffs
"accompanying any such persons
"shall be subject only to the jurisdiction
"of the Contracting Party of which they are nationals
"in respect of all acts or omissions occurring
"while they are in Antarctica
"for the purpose of exercising their functions."
So, if you are a US national doing research in Antarctica,
the treaty seems to imply that you are governed
by the rules of the United States
while you are domiciled in Antarctica.
And, by analogy, if you're in the ISS
and you commit a crime, you're governed
by the laws of the United States.
Still, the drafters of the Antarctic Treaty
left a lot of questions unanswered,
and when in 2000 an Australian astrophysicist died
in the South Pole, the nations involved
were unsure how to confront the fact
that he was likely poisoned.
After Dr. Marks unfortunately passed away,
an autopsy was performed,
and methanol was found in his system.
For those of you who don't have advanced degrees
in toxicology, which I will assume is most of you,
including myself, methanol is a colorless liquid
that smells a lot like ethanol,
otherwise known as alcohol, but that is far more toxic.
So the question remained, did Dr. Marks knowingly ingest
a highly toxic substance, or was he poisoned?
The United States had an interest in investigating the death
since Marks died on a US base
and was an employee of an American contractor.
New Zealand maintained its own interest
in investigating Marks' death
since it considered the location of the US base
to fall within its own territorial claim.
One officer from New Zealand who handled the case
stated that he could not rule out
that the scientist's demise was the direct result
of the act of another person in the base.
However, despite those suspicions,
unresolved jurisdictional questions,
competing jurisdictional claims,
and conflicting interests prevented anyone
from ever getting to the bottom of Dr. Marks' death.
To this day, no one knows if he died by murder,
suicide, or an unfortunate accident.
In a similar way, international waters
pose similar jurisdictional questions and conflicts
with those raised in Antarctica and in space.
Maybe at some point this will have to be an additional video
because if I had a nickel for every time a Legal Eagle
asked me to cover maritime law and the law of the high seas,
I would be a very, very rich man.
At the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea
held in 1958, certain provisions were adopted
to regulate activities in international waters.
Articles five and six respectively state that, quote,
"Ships have the nationality of the State
"whose flag they are entitled to fly,
"in particular, the State must effectively exercise
"its jurisdiction and control in administrative,
"technical and social matters over ships flying its flag."
And, quote, "ships shall sail."
That's so hard to say.
"Under the flag of one State only and shall be subject
"to exclusive jurisdiction on the high seas."
(sighs)
I'm so glad I was able to say that correctly.
A fugitive or a criminal sailing on a ship
in international waters is therefore subject
to the laws and regulations of whatever country
the vessel is registered to.
The United States can also exercise special jurisdiction
in international waters, such as when, quote,
"Any place outside the jurisdiction of any nation
"with respect to an offense by or against
"a national of the United States," end quote, is involved.
Despite the uncertainty that still surrounds space law,
however, many say that with the onset of space tourism
we'll soon have no choice but to expand the laws
that govern the International Space Station.
And frankly, that's how our law
was created in the first place.
American law is a subset of English common law,
which means that the law was created,
basically, as judges went along.
They got a new case and when there were new facts
that had to be adjudicated for the first time,
they just kind of made it up as they went.
In contrast to a lot of the civil law societies
in Europe, where the law is codified
and judges just simply follow that
and they never have discretion in terms
of creating new common law on their own.
And the funny thing is that when you're in law school,
you read a ton of railroad cases,
because in the 18th and 19th centuries,
trains were the newfangled technology of the day
and required courts to wrestle with new legal principles
to deal with new legal situations.
So really, when you think about it,
rocket ships and International Space Stations
are just the trains of today.
Without wheels.
In space.
And as Mark Sundahl of the Global Space Law Center said,
the more we go out there and spend time out there,
all the things that we do here are going to happen in space.
Since Worden and her family filed their complaints
against McClain, an investigator specializing
in criminal cases with NASA's Office of Inspector General
has begun to look into the issue
surrounding these novel circumstances.
While no charges have been filed,
a seemingly trivial domestic dispute
could get the ball rolling and push the US,
and presumably other space powers, to take a hard look
at their interstellar criminal laws, or lack thereof.
You know, before we know it, everything that happens
down here on Earth will eventually happen in space.
And while that may eventually mean shopping on the moon
and yoga on Mars, it could also very well mean crime
that's out of this world.
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So, do you agree with my analysis?
Are you worried about space crime?
Or do you think the current laws already deal with it?
Leave your objections in the comments
and check out this playlist over here
for all of my other real law reviews
where we cover all of the legal topics of the day
where I will see you in court.