The Day I Met Dr. Ernst Fasan

The author with Dr. Ernst Fasan, Prague, Sept. 29, 2010

Metalaw is a somewhat obscure legal concept closely related to the scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).  First conceived in 1956 by pioneering space lawyer Andrew G. Haley -- four years before astronomer Frank Drake conducted the first true SETI experiment, Project Ozma -- Metalaw was the term Haley coined to refer to fundamental legal precepts of theoretically universal application to all intelligences, human and extraterrestrial.

In 1956, Haley published an article entitled “Space Law and Metalaw – A Synoptic View,” in which Haley first proposed his “Interstellar Golden Rule”: Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.  Haley rejected the traditional formulation of the Golden Rule as articulated by philosophers throughout the ages (from Confucius to Aristotle to Rabbi Hillel and Jesus to Abdullah Ansari) because, Haley said, in Metalaw “we deal with all frames of existence – with sapient beings different in kind. We must do unto others in different frames of reference . . . To treat others as we would desire to be treated might well mean their destruction. We must treat them as they desire to be treated.”  According to Haley, we can project only one principle of human law onto our possible future relations with an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI): “the stark concept of absolute equity.”

Haley developed his ideas somewhat further in various papers and a book prior to his death in 1966, but significant elaboration of his ideas did not take place until the publication in 1970 of what remains the seminal metalegal work, Relations with Alien Intelligences:  The Scientific Basis of Metalaw, written by Dr. Ernst Fasan.

I regard Dr. Ernst Fasan as one of the most visionary legal thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries.  Born in 1926 in Vienna, Dr. Fasan was a practicing attorney in 1958 when he helped to establish the Permanent Committee on Space Law of the International Astronautical Federation.  Two years later his friend and colleague Andrew Haley invited him to join the committee's successor, the International Institute of Space Law.  He has published numerous articles on problems of space law, including Metalaw.  He remains active in the SETI field as a member of the SETI Permanent Study Group of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Unfortunately, in recent decades few lawyers or scientists have shown an interest in continuing the pioneering metalegal work of Andrew Haley and Dr. Fasan. The few papers that have been published by other writers on Metalaw have tended to be more descriptive of the past than generative of new directions for Metalaw.  This is understandable.  The subject isn't likely to advance the careers of either working attorneys or legal academicians.  However, this could prove unfortunate.  History is replete with examples of the human race being overtaken by profoundly disruptive events for which it has not prepared, despite having adequate time to do so and also having plenty of warning.  Human-generated climate change is a current, albeit negative, example.  Possible future contact with ETI may be another, and we don't know if that experience will be positive or negative, if it ever occurs.  I think it may be both, but it will certainly be highly disruptive socially.

The author at the Kavli Royal Society Centre, Oct. 6, 2010

With this in mind, I decided to step into the breach and take a stab at kick-starting metalegal research.  At least two potential shortcomings in existing metalegal concepts concerned me.  One had been pointed out decades earlier in a few papers and a book by lawyer George Robinson, who once was legal counsel to the Smithsonian Institution.  That is Metalaw's reliance on the Natural Law Theory of Jurisprudence rather than on an empirical body of evidence about how legal institutions and legal systems actually work.  My own view is that all human culture -- and law is nothing but one expression of human culture -- is merely the product of the human mind and therefore relative.  We have no empirical basis for believing that Haley's maxim regarding the "stark concept of absolute equity" has any universality.  (Unfortunately, on Earth, it certainly doesn't.)  Why should we believe other intelligences in the universe would regard it as valid?  Maybe they do, but right now we have no evidence to believe that.  We should regard Haley's maxim as a hypothesis to be tested against what evidence we can find, and that means taking a social science approach to Metalaw.

The second potential shortcoming that concerned me was the fact that early metalegal thinking did not anticipate a future development of scientific thinking regarding ETI -- that ETI is likely to be artificially intelligent machine rather than a living, biological being.  If we know little about legal relationships with alien intelligences, we know even less about legal relationships with alien machine intelligences.  Why?  Because we know next to nothing about our legal relationships with human-made artificial intelligence, which we are just now developing.

The author with Dr. Alexander Zaitsev

To make a long story short, I spent many evenings and weekends researching and writing a paper on these concerns and submitted it for presentation at the 39th IAA Symposium on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, held concurrently with the 61st International Astronautical Congress in Prague in September 2010.  The paper ("The Limits of Metalaw and the Need for Further Elaboration") was accepted, and my wife Anastasia and I scheduled a week in Prague into our already-planned biennial Paris vacation.

I was scheduled to present dead last, at end of the day.  About an hour before it was my turn, a tall, distinguished gentleman sat down in the row in front of me.  From his profile, I recognized instantly that it was Dr. Fasan, although the only photo of him I had ever seen was on the cover of his book published in 1970.  (During my presentation I joked that I wasn't nervous until he entered the room.)  After my presentation, Dr. Fasan spoke briefly to address some of the points raised in my paper, and then we had the opportunity to meet and chat briefly.  Meeting Dr. Fasan and having the unexpected opportunity to present him with a bound copy of my paper was the highlight of my visit to Prague.

Chicheley Hall, Kavli Royal Society Centre, UK

CODA:  After the talk in Prague, Dr. Doug Vakoch, a social scientist with the SETI Institute, approached me and asked if there was any way I could be in London a week later to present again at the 2nd IAA Symposium on Searching for Life Signatures, as a last-minute replacement for Doug's colleague, astronomer (and co-host of the best science show on radio) Seth Shostak, who could not be there.  Doug wanted me to talk for 15 or 20 minutes about Metalaw as it related to the ongoing controversy over Active SETI or METI.  "Sure," I said without thinking (or talking to my understanding wife Anastasia), not quite realizing at the time that I had just committed myself to what will likely be the most expensive 15 minutes of my life.

A week later I boarded the Eurostar in Paris and chunneled my way over to London, caught another train to Bedford, and then taxied over to the Kavli Royal Society International Centre at Chicheley Hall, where I was met by the smiling and friendly Dr. Alexander Zaitsev from Russia.  I  had met Sasha two years earlier at the 1st Searching for Life Symposium held at UNESCO in Paris and had corresponded with him intermittently since then.  Sasha is a significant figure in the Active SETI controversy.

The author presents at the Kavli Royal Society Centre

I was only able to stay at the conference for four hours before having to reverse the entire journey, hoping to make it back to Paris by midnight.  I gave my talk as best I could, recovering as I was from a cold I had caught in Prague and not really having had much time to pull my thoughts together given that I was supposed to be on vacation with Anastasia, who up to now had patiently tolerated with a smile (and good humor) my pursuit of all things metalegal.

It was an adventure, albeit an expensive one -- but well worth the cost.

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