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Metalaw is “the entire sum of legal rules regulating relationships between different races in the universe.”http://metalawandseti.blogspot.com/ It is a concept of space law closely related to the scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).Adam Chase Korbitz, The Limits of Metalaw and the Need for Further Elaboration, Paper IAC-10-A4.2.10, presented at the 39th Symposium on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, 61st International Astronautical Congress, 2010, Prague, Czech Republic The idea is an elaboration of Immanuel Kant's Categorical imperative "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."
In 1956, Haley first published an article entitled “Space Law and Metalaw – A Synoptic View”,Andrew G. Haley, Space law and Metalaw – A Synoptic View, Harvard Law Record 23 (November 8, 1956) in which Haley first proposed what he called an “Interstellar Golden Rule”: Do unto others as they would have you do unto them. According to Haley, humans can project only one principle of human law onto our possible future relations with extraterrestrial intelligence: “the stark concept of absolute equity.” Haley developed his formulation of Metalaw somewhat further in various papers and a 1963 book.Andrew G. Haley, Space Law and Government, Appleton Century Crofts, New York, 1963
In Relations with Alien Intelligences, Fasan proposed Metalaw is “the entire sum of legal rules regulating relationships between different races in the universe.” Metalaw is the “first and basic ‘law’ between races” providing the “ground rules” for a relationship if and when humans establish communication with or encounter an intelligent extraterrestrial race elsewhere in the universe. Fasan asserted that these rules would govern both human conduct and that of extraterrestrial races so as to avoid mutually harmful activities.
In later papersErnst Fasan, Discovery of ETI: Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Legal Implications, Acta Astronautica 21 (2) (1990) 131-135Ernst Fasan, Legal Consequences of a SETI Detection, Acta Astronautica 42 (10-12) (1998) 677-679 published in the 1990s that more directly related Metalaw to SETI, Fasan proposed a simple 3-prong formula of metalegal principles. That formula involves:
Other commentators have noted that Haley's formulation of Metalaw depends heavily upon subjective or relative (and therefore inadequate) concepts of “good” and “bad.”F. Lyall, P.B. Larsen, Space Law: A Treatise, Ashgate Publishing Company, Burlington VT, 2009 Critics have noted that there is no guarantee that other civilizations would abide by Haley's assertions regarding equity among intelligent races in the universe.G.H. Reynolds, International space law: Into the Twenty-First Century, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 25 (1992) 225-255 Haley's failure to acknowledge the obvious anthropocentrism limits of natural law theory has led some to note that the cultural concept of rules or law is itself anthropocentric.G.S. Robinson, note 7, supra
G. Harry Stine (under his pen-name Lee Correy) wrote a short novel on the topic — "A Matter of Metalaw" (DAW Books, October 1986).
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