Mark Sundahl ’01, One of the World’s Leading Space Law Experts

As a UC Law SF student, Mark Sundahl ’01 wrote an article for the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review about liability for damage caused by unidentifiable space debris. The rather esoteric piece was the first step on a long and winding journey that has resulted in Sundahl becoming one of the top space law experts in the world.

Sundahl, a Cleveland-Marshall College of Law professor, holds international posts that feature high-level conversations about cutting edge legal issues in space law. He is a member of the Hague Space Resources Governance Working Group and also serves an advisor to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations’ Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Sundahl maintains these leadership roles at a time when space law is increasingly in the headlines after President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to create a “space force.” While he calls Trump’s efforts a political ploy and fiscally irresponsible, Sundahl said ongoing efforts by private entrepreneurs to mine celestial bodies deserve close attention. “Everyone is interested in reaping the wealth of the solar system,” he said.

Space mining presents plenty of legal issues that are the subject of international debate. There is agreement among nations that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prevents countries from appropriating celestial bodies, Sundahl said, but other conflicts have emerged. “Now the issue is, ‘Can you move to a celestial body, say it is an asteroid, and mine all the platinum out of an asteroid?’” noted Sundahl. “And the majority viewpoint is, ‘Yes, you can do that,’ but there are some countries — Belgium, Russia, Brazil — that are pushing against that interpretation.”

Through his UN and Hague roles, Sundahl participates in ongoing discussions about how asteroid mining and other non-traditional space activities should be regulated. He is also training the next generation of lawyers to tackle such issues through his post at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in Ohio. The school launched a Global Space Law Center last year, and Sundahl serves as the director.

There are air and space law centers at other schools, but Cleveland-Marshall is believed to be the first school in the U.S. to launch a center dedicated solely to space law. “I believe that space law has now reached the point where it can stand on its own, and we no longer need to be the little sister of aviation law,” Sundahl said. “Space law is quite distinct, and this is the first center that recognizes that.”

Sundahl’s students are already playing a major role in the center’s work by staffing an active research council. “These students are helping me research the law, develop our point of view and release our white papers that express the Global Space Law Center’s view,” he said. “They’re third-year law students, and they are shaping the future of international law of outer space.”

Sundahl also keeps contact with UC Law SF students through the Space Law Society. He hopes to make a positive impact similar to the one Professor Joel Paul and former UC Law SF Professor William S. Dodge made on him and praises their international law tutelage as inspiring to his career.

Prior to focusing primarily on the space industry, Sundahl worked as an associate in the international transactions group at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in San Francisco. “To be a good space lawyer, you need to be an international lawyer first, because general international law is the foundation of international space law,” he concluded.

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