The sky isn’t the limit for University of Nebraska-Lincoln students studying law.
As part of the university’s far-out space and telecommunications law master’s degree program, eight students are learning to apply their legal expertise to infinity … and beyond.
Interest in space and global communication has skyrocketed recently, taking with it the demand for space law gurus, said Matt Schaefer, director of UNL’s program.
The United States has the largest stake in space from both the private and governmental perspectives, so “you can imagine there’s a need for lawyers with knowledge of the regulations,” Schaefer said.
The seven students who graduated from the program last year have a competitive advantage over less-specialized lawyers when launching space-related careers, both Schaefer and Frans von der Dunk, a UNL space law professor, said.
Lawyers are needed during space collisions and military intelligence operations, as regulators of the International Space Station and as legal counsel for space tourism and satellite companies.
“The range of jobs is very big, and it’s constantly growing,” von der Dunk said.
In creating the master’s degree in space and telecom law, UNL went where no American university had gone before. The program, now in its second year, is the first and only of its kind in the United States and the only one worldwide taught in English.
The degree requires 24 credit hours in various space, international and telecommunications law courses. Such courses are also open to law students outside of the program wishing to earn a certificate of specialization.
While Lincoln is still no Houston, UNL’s unique focus on both space and telecommunications — most other degrees link air and space law — makes it an unexpected draw for people with other-worldly interests. And the fact that U.S. Strategic Command, which monitors space activity, is located just south of Omaha likely adds to its allure.
Jon Vince, a Canadian student in the program, said he “was looking for sort of a space and telecom hybrid degree” to further his goal of working for a space and telecom law firm or for a satellite company.
He found it in Nebraska, and Vince said the degree “will definitely give me a leg up” within the competitive space industry.
UNL wooed leading Dutch space law expert von der Dunk away from the Netherlands with “an offer I couldn’t refuse,” he said. Von der Dunk couldn’t forgo the opportunity to work in a “first-rate, space-faring nation” and at a university “really dedicated to making this program work,” he said.
Von der Dunk, who founded the consultancy company that’s advising the European Commission as it develops its own GPS, teaches courses in general space law, national security space law, national space legislation and European space regulations.
Other courses offered through the program include those in U.S. military space law, domestic and international telecommunications, and cyberlaw.
Schaefer said most of the courses are new and were developed specifically for the addition of the space law program. So far, they’ve been a hit with both the master’s degree-seekers as well as with the regular law students, Schaefer said.
“We’re excited the program has had such a great start,” he said. “And we’re looking forward to continuing to progress.”
teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com
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