Laura Montgomery

"Space Law: The Choices Before Us in Fact and Fiction"

ABSTRACT -- What challenges does the Outer Space Treaty pose to commercialization efforts in space? The treaty bars national appropriation, admonishes state actors to avoid harmful contamination, and requires regulation of private activities. Are these obstacles? They don't have to be.

SPEAKER -- Laura Montgomery teaches space law at Catholic University's Columbus School of Law. In her private practice, she specializes in regulatory space law, with an emphasis on commercial space transportation and the Outer Space Treaties. She also writes and edits the space law blog GroundBasedSpaceMatters.com.

Prior to private practice and teaching, Ms. Montgomery spent over two decades with the Federal Aviation Administration. As the FAA's space lawyer, she supported the Office of Commercial Space Transportation in its authorization and regulation of launch, reentry, and the operation of launch and reentry sites. She eventually became the manager of the Space Law Branch in the FAA's Office of the Chief Counsel.

Her work at the FAA covered a wide range of issues including commercial human space flight, amateur rockets, sea launch, space balloons, representation of the FAA at the UN legal subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and chairing an inter-agency working group on space property rights at the request of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

In 2017, she testified to the Space Subcommittees of the House and Senate on matters of regulation and international obligation.

While it does help put bread on the table, her experience with space law also provides key support for her avocation, which is writing science fiction stories whose plots not infrequently involve legal problems likely to bedevil a spacefaring civilization.

Ms. Montgomery received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.

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