The internationalists might condemn Mr Benson's action in the General Assembly of the UN, seize the International Court of Justice to condemn the US for not taking action against Mr Benson, or even begin a case in US national courts. All of this to say that we must move very fast to change the current corpus juris spatialis. The best case seems to be to try to make a deal with a couple of major spacefaring countries that are in principle open to the principles of the free market. A mulitateral treaty between ESA, Japan, Canada and the US e.g. could change things. But especially the Europeans will probably be weary.
Space law remains in a great crisis.
As most people here know, in May 2002 SpaceDev Inc plans to claim the asteroid 4660 Nereus, after landing instruments on it. My questions concern the legal implications. Of course Congress could change this by legislation, but that seems unlikely in the time available. If on the other hand the claim is uncontested, so that it becomes generally accepted that Nereus belongs to SpaceDev, that would constitute a precedent that also seems to have important implications. If so, that should heat up the race considerably.