HOW MUCH LAW DO WE BRING WITH US?

With so much interest in a manned mission to Mars, the colonization of Mars is no longer a question of "if," but "when?" What are the minimum legal requirements for operating the colony on Mars? Should Mars even have its own law? Why not just use the laws of the space-faring nations? But what if those laws conflict? The time to plan for a legal regime for the Mars Colony is now and not later. By the time the colonists land on Mars it will be too late.

The Mars Colony Legal Code is not just an effort to answer the question, "how much law do we take with us?" but also, "and whose law?"

It's not science fiction. What if you had to write a legal code for Mars. Where would you start?

Of course, you wouldn't start from scratch. But you wouldn't start with the hundred-plus volumes of the New York statutes, either.

So what's the minimum? Look at Alaska in 1959. Take out hunting and fishing and you know you have the minimum to run a jurisdiction.

Or the legal regime for the former Canal Zone in Panama, which, while frozen in time, also constitutes the bare minimum necessary to run a jurisdiction.

Other countries' laws are instructive, modern and workable. The most useful are listed in sources.

Much is missing from the Code, especially a chapter on rules for mining. Mining drove development in the American West and it is likely that commercial interests will drive space exploration.

There have been a few "international" jurisdictions in history. The international zone in Tangier. Shanghai in the 1930's. There is U.S. case law about what laws apply to crimes committed on ice floes in international waters.

There are international treaties which, in theory, govern man's conduct in space. But the concept of extraterritorial jurisdiction is discredited. The time to talk about these things is now, before people start living on Mars.