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Overview

Professor Michael Bohlander

Chair in Global Law and SETI Policy


Affiliations
Affiliation
Chair in Global Law and SETI Policy in the Durham Law School

Biography

Professor Bohlander has been the International Co-Investigating Judge in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia since 2015. From 2017 until 2022, he was also on the roster of international judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. He joined Durham University in 2004, having previously been a life-tenured member of the German judiciary since 1991.  

He has published over 20 books, more than 160 chapters and articles, and over 60 book reviews on German law, English and Welsh criminal law, comparative and international criminal law, the judiciary and the legal profession, Islamic law, and SETI. 

His current main focus is on the relationship between the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) - which in his view must include academically rigorous research about the nature and origin of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) - and human law in the wider sense.  SETI  research cannot be the exclusive domain of science and technology, but must include the perspective of the social sciences. Nor can it be restricted to astronomy's search  for so-called bio- or technosignatures beyond Earth's atmosphere. What is needed, is a holistic approach combining all cognitive disciplines that abandons overcome reservations and traditional sensitivities.

 

Research interests

  • Legal aspects of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)
  • International and comparative criminal law - Theory, practice, political and socio-legal implications

Publications

Authored book

Book review

Chapter in book

Conference Paper

Edited book

Journal Article

Manual

Other (Print)

Scholarly Edition

Supervision students