Professor Bohlander’s book on Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Human Law discussed at international colloquium
Professor Bohlander's recent monograph, Contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Human Law, was recently discussed at the Society for UAP Studies' colloquium.
On 19 April 2024, the Society for UAP Studies held an international colloquium on Professor Bohlander’s recent monograph, Contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Human Law. His discussants were Professor Steve Fuller, the Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology at Warwick University, and Dr Michael Uhall, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Indiana University East, followed by questions from the audience. The two-hour discussion focused on the practical, legal, philosophical, political and religious ramifications of contact with an alien civilisation, including the current debate about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The recording is available on the Society’s YouTube channel.
This follows an earlier webinar organised on 21 March 2024 by the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) in its International Law in Asia Speaker Series, entitled “International Law and Life in Space: Developments”, together with Professor Hilding Neilson and Ms Roser Almenar. The video is available on the CALS YouTube channel.
The book has already had favourable coverage and reviews in the United States and in Germany (here and here), including in German mainstream tabloid media. It was used as a resource in the 2024 Concours Jean-Pictet Competition.
Professor Bohlander's research
Professor Bohlander is the Chair in Global Law and SETI Policy at Durham Law School. His current main research focus is on the relationship between the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and human law in the wider sense, including issues such as the implications of the possibility of hostile first contact for the human laws of armed conflict, or the question of which global values humanity would be willing to trade for access to advanced technology from an extraterrestrial civilisation or an interstellar civilisation network. He also has an interest in the evaluation of evidence about encounters with UAP in a forensic context. He is, inter alia, a member of the Board of Advisors of the Society for UAP Studies, and the convenor of the new three-year working group "SETI and Law" under the auspices of the International Institute of Space Law.
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