Space law materials acquired by UNL College of Law

This summer, faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law added a noteworthy collection of space & telecommunications law materials to the Schmid Law Library.

This collection of 475 titles includes a wide range of materials published since the 1950s.

The collection began in the early 1960s when Mortimer Schwartz, then a professor and director of the law library at the University of Oklahoma, tried to gather a vast collection of resources related to space exploration and laws.

He wanted a collection that did not exist at the time because scholars were just beginning to think about ideas related to space, such as mining and colonizing other planets in the international colloquium of 1961.

Schwartz built the collection over several years before moving to the University of California Davis. The Mercer University School of Law Library then acquired the collection around 10 years ago.

This summer, a representative from William S. Hein & Co. Inc., a legal publishing firm, offered the collection to Richard A. Leiter, director of UNL's law library and a professor of law, who has been putting the word out that the library is looking for these materials.

The search for these materials began when Matthew Schaefer, a professor at the College of Law, started UNL's space and telecommunications law program last year – the first and only space law program in the United States.

"There are not a lot of libraries in the country that have space and telecommunications law materials," Schaefer said. "It is an honor to house this rare collection. Now it is so actively utilized by faculty and students every day that we might need more seating around the area."

Altogether, Schmid Law Library has acquired more than 550 titles and nearly 1,000 volumes in support of the space & telecommunications law program, making its collection among the most comprehensive in the world.

"These students can do no better anywhere else than being here because books like these have such limited runs since only scholars have access to them," Leiter said.

Space and telecommunications law students are required to write a research thesis to broaden their understanding of history. The collection can help them in a number of areas, ranging from how the laws came about, speculative work about exploring outer space and how countries should cooperate in future space explorations.

"Historical materials are particularly difficult to come by," Leiter said. "It is very important to have a special collection like this; it makes us unique."

In addition to this special collection, the law library has acquired nearly 50 titles geared toward new titles that reflect the latest scholarship in the field.

"The library is not static, just sitting on the shelves," Leiter said. "This library is like a living organism. We are always growing, and we exist to serve the law school."

ruthangelina@dailynebraskan.com