The Global Space Law Center, housed in Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, will enhance its innovative curricular offerings with an online course to be offered in the summer of 2018. “Space Law: A Global View,” will cover the fundamentals of space law and how the discipline has evolved alongside the expansion of private and governmental space activity. The course will be open to all law students both in the United States and internationally, to lawyers and other professionals with a connection or interest in the space industry, as well as to students or professionals in other disciplines.

The three-credit hour, asynchronous online course will be taught by the director of the Global Space Law Center, Professor Mark J. Sundahl, a leading international space lawyer. The course will also feature guest lectures and interviews with thought leaders from government and industry. Students in the course will have flexibility to complete the pre-recorded online learning modules according to their own schedules, which will allow for international students to participate in any time zone.

“Now is a particularly good time to study space law because we live in a period of tremendous growth in the industry,” explains Sundahl. “With ongoing rapid development of space laws and regulations, both domestically and internationally, there is a need for lawyers who understand these laws and can put them into action.”

Prof. Sundahl is enthusiastic about this opportunity to attract a diverse collection of international students to the course. “Asynchronous courses often increase student engagement and participation and we expect that from this course,” he adds. “By organizing this course in a way to allow for international participation, we can attract a collection of students that truly captures the global nature of space law.”

Students enrolling in the course will receive a broad education in space law that will cover, among other topics, the international treaties that govern the activities of nations in space and the domestic regulations that play a major role in shaping private space activity. The course will also explore the many types of space activity and will examine how the law has evolved to regulate new space industries, including space tourism, on-orbit satellite repair, and asteroid mining.

The course will begin on May 21 and run through a final exam taken either July 11 or July 12, according to student preference. C|M|LAW founded the Global Space Law Center in 2017, becoming the first law school in the United States to create a research center dedicated exclusively to the study of the law of outer space.

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