"John Schilling" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 8 Oct 2007 17:47:58 -0600, "Logan Kearsley"
wrote:

wrote in message
roups.com...
On Oct 7, 2:40 pm, "Logan Kearsley" wrote:
"Space Cadet" wrote in message

ps.com...

Hi All
Got this email from a friend of mine:

Hi all, I am working on a new lesson for my second graders focusing
on
Moon Laws. If YOU were given the task of creating a constitution,
laws,
bill of rights for people in a future lunar colony what would YOU
include? I'd love to have your input! Thanks,

My first thought is that doesn't the OST say or at least imply that
the country that launches an object/probe/spacecraft is responsible
for said object? And whatever rule of law applies to that country
would apply to said object?
Even if you would go with a privately funded moon colony. That
company would be based on some nation on Earth, and whatever laws
apply to that country would apply to the colony?

Yes, but... that doesn't mean that the people living in the colony have
to agree with the Earthlings who signed that treaty. They could just
declare
themselves soveriegn and say "*we* never signed the OST, so bugger
off".

Well wait a minute most of the people living there will have been born
on Earth,and be from one of the nations that signed the OST. So,its

Yes. So? Most of them probably wouldn't *want* to declare independence;
there are lots of very good practical reasons *not* to. But there's
nothing
to stop them from doing so if they *did* want to.

All the things that stop most terrestrial separatist groups from declaring
independence and forming their own nations, would still apply. You will

Never said otherwise.

note that most separatist groups do *not* in fact declare independence,
and when one does it's a fairly traumatic process with a high failure
rate. And it's not just a matter of brute force being used to squash
the separatists, either. Building a nation, or nation-substitute, is
hard even when nobody is opposing you.

And yet we do know that it is in fact possible to declare independence and
establish a new nation, even though it doesn't happen very often, because
every once in a while those separatist groups *do* in fact declare
independence, and sometimes they even succeed. That won't change just
because you're on the Moon.
I have never claimed anything stronger than that.

-l.
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