Copyright 1997 by Lawrence D. Roberts. All rights reserved. The late Gene Roddenberry had a vision of the future. His creation, Star Trek, pictures a technological society that not only works, but offers the closest resemblance to Utopia that most of us are likely to see. Roddenberry recognized that much as we may love to hate the legal profession, law and its practitioners are essential to the smooth working of effective systems of social order whatever the circumstances.
Western civilization is the rule of law.
From medicine to mining, from banking to baseball, how we work, play and live is defined by the rules we set for ourselves. We depend today on both international and domestic law to provide stability, to allocate rights and interests among competing parties and, on good days, to enhance the workings of our economy. This dependence is so complete, that even our fictional visions of the future can not do without law. Lawmakers in the aerospace arena will undoubtedly face a number of challenges. First, to craft laws and regulations that rely upon market mechanisms to maximize the efficient allocation of industry capital as fully as possible, reduce the costs associated with regulation and discourage partisan political interference in the space sector.