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Elon Musk will run into trouble setting up a Martian government, lawyers say:
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is steadfast in realizing his dreams of establishing a permanent colony on Mars, but any new government there will face immense legal challenges.
We got an early glimpse of what such a future society could look like, buried deep inside the user agreement for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service.
“For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities,” the terms of service read. “Accordingly, disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.”
[...] Lawyers, however, have their doubts about SpaceX’s abilities to set up a Martian state. In fact, several told The Independent in a new story, what SpaceX has laid out in its Starlink user agreement isn’t radically different from space treaties that have been signed over the years.
[...] For instance, the 2020 Artemis accords stipulate that “outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
[...] “[Musk] could be trying to lay some groundwork for offering up an independent constitution… just like he did for electric cars and reusable launch vehicles,” [Randy Segal, of the law firm Hogan Lovells] told The Independent. “Does it have any precedent or enforceability? The answer I’d say is clearly no; but if you say something enough, people might come around.”
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Friday January 01 2021, @04:02PM
It's not "modern governments" - monopoly on violence has always been what defined a government.
It can be easy to view this cynically as you have, but there's a very practical reason that this is the way it is. Imagine, for instance, that Google had sufficient power to resist any efforts of legal enforcement on behalf of the US government. They could, at this point, effectively declare themselves the new government, start unilaterally passing their own laws and enforcing them, and require every person involuntarily give them a percent of every transaction - a "tax." What's the "old" government going to do? Tell them that's against the law?
This is also why we are trending towards becoming a country, if not a world, ruled by corporations. As corporations grow immensely more powerful and integrate themselves into governments, at some point the governments will become less able to enforce their will than the corporations. Some might argue we're already there. We can get laws passed banning competing businesses (TikTok), making "illicit streaming" a felony with a decade in prison, give the mega-corporations billions of dollars while small businesses are left to die, and much more. But a basic digital privacy (or even civil) rights law? Dead on arrival. Laws benefiting genuine* small business and entrepreneurship? Again, generally dead on arrival. I add genuine because the definition of small business has been co-opted [ecfr.gov] by big business. Are you a commercial bank with half a billion dollars in assets and 1,000 employees? Congrats, you're a small business!