Book Reviews Outer Space: Problems of Law and Policy Glenn H. Reynolds & Robert P. Merges (Eds), 1989 Boulder, CO, Westview Press Reynolds & Merges have filled an important gap in the literature of space. In law school, the major teaching method is called the Socratic method, and it uses the ‘casebook’ approach. This book is the first casebook on space law. Until now, space law has been offered in only a few law schools on an occasional basis. This book will provide a text that should encourage more courses and provide the space attorneys that space business will need to be viable in the next decade. The book provides an overview of space history and of orbital mechanics for lawyers. It also discusses the exploration, exploitation and settlement of space to give a further context to the audience. The book then delves into its topic of space law. The first part of the book deals with issues of international space law. When space law began in the 1950s, it was wholly a branch of international law. The United Nations played a major role in the drafting and ratifying of the four treaties that are the heart of the present space law (the Moon Treaty is the fifth, and has not been ratified by many countries). Increasingly, space law has expanded to meet the new needs of the development of space commerce. Space law had taken on a decidedly domestic aspect in the United States: companies must be incorporated; investors as shareholders or debt holders must be acquired. Contracts must be let; employees hired (and fired); patents, torts, even criminal law will be encountered in the course of modern business—on Earth, or in space. The book deals nicely with the domestic law aspects, and really excels when the authors approach the issues of the future. If I must introduce any criticism, it is that the book lacks a bibliography (though it has a good index). Also, instead of putting the legal documents (treaties and statutes) in an appendix, the authors place them in the text. This treatment slows down the presentation, making it somewhat harder to follow. Nathan C. Goldman University of Texas Lunar Simulant Survey Report Prepared by the Center for Lunar Materials Research, University of North Dakota for Space Studies Institute, Princeton, NJ. This article provides a brief description of various lunar simulants, together with an extensive list of papers in which simulants have been used. A number of lunar simulants used to date are described in detail. However, most of these are no longer available. Two presently available simulants are discussed, along with the costs for ordering such material.
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