Jurisprudential Space Junk: Treaties and New Technologies

RESOLVING CONFLICTS IN THE LAW: ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF LEA BRILMAYER (Chiara Giorgetti & Natalie Klein, editors) (2019) ISBN: 978-90-04-31653-9

24 Pages Posted: 7 Apr 2019

See all articles by Rebecca Crootof

Rebecca Crootof

University of Richmond School of Law; Yale University - Yale Information Society Project

Date Written: August 01, 2018

Abstract

New technologies have fundamentally altered the ways in which international law develops, evolves, and sometimes inappropriately persists. This chapter discusses the problem of “jurisprudential space junk”: treaty laws that are theoretically in force but actually simply clutter the relevant legal regime. After reviewing problems associated with multilateral treaties regulating new technologies, this chapter suggests that other, more flexible forms of international lawmaking — namely, soft law and customary international law — will sometimes be far better suited to international technological governance.

Keywords: international law, treaties, technology

Suggested Citation

Crootof, Rebecca, Jurisprudential Space Junk: Treaties and New Technologies (August 01, 2018). RESOLVING CONFLICTS IN THE LAW: ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF LEA BRILMAYER (Chiara Giorgetti & Natalie Klein, editors) (2019) ISBN: 978-90-04-31653-9, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3352614 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3352614

Rebecca Crootof (Contact Author)

University of Richmond School of Law ( email )

28 Westhampton Way
Richmond, VA 23173
United States

Yale University - Yale Information Society Project ( email )

127 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
United States

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