19th Annual University of Nebraska Space Law Conference
Cislunar, the Moon, and Beyond: Hot Topics in Space Law, Policy, and Regulation
Join us for the 19th Annual University of Nebraska College of Law Space Conference, “Cislunar, the Moon, and Beyond: Hot Topics in Space Law, Policy, and Regulation,” in Washington DC!
Date: Thursday, September 24, 2026
Location: The sessions, including a light-lunch networking event, will be held at the Army and Navy Club on Farragut Square, 901 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006. The event will be held on the second floor; an elevator is available. You can find details about parking or navigating to the club at their website: https://www.armynavyclub.org
A reception will be held following the event, across the street at Blackfinn DC, 1620 I St NW, Washington, DC 20006.
Online attendance is unfortunately not available.
Agenda
12:10 PM: Registration table opens
12:10-1:00 PM: Join fellow space professionals and space law students for a light networking lunch (wraps or sandwiches, fruit, etc)
1:00 PM: The conference opens with a welcome from the Director, Professor Erik Mudrinich
1:15-1:45 PM: Keynote from Professor Frans von der Dunk, Harvey and Susan Perlman Alumni Othmer Professor of Space Law, University of Nebraska College of Law
1:50-2:45 PM: Fireside chat interview with Professor Elsbeth Magilton (University of Nebraska Law) and Professor Steve Mirmina (Georgetown Law) on lunar mission topics, followed by questions.
2:45-3:00 PM: Networking Break
3:00-4:10 PM: Space Law, Policy, and Regulation Hot Topics Panel. Panelists pending.
4:30 PM: Join us for a happy hour reception at Blackfinn DC, 1620 I St NW, Washington, DC 20006
Registration
Continuing Nebraska Law’s tradition of free and accessible space law education, the networking, sessions, and reception events remain free of charge.
Donations to the program are welcome and support space law student development. The actual cost of attendance is approximately $50.00 per person. Donations at any amount may be accepted here: https://nufoundation.org/fund/01129660/
You can also support our program through our merch store: https://nebraskalawstore.com/
Registration is available from August 10 to September 18. Please note, the space is limited to 80 and typically fills. Online attendance is unfortunately not available this year. Please only register if you’re able to attend in person.
Speakers
Steve Mirmina
Adjunct Professor of Space Law, Yale Law School and Georgetown University Law Center
Steve Mirmina practiced international space law for more than 25 years at NASA’s Office of the General Counsel before retiring from federal service. Prior to joining NASA, he practiced aviation law at two well-respected Washington, D.C., law firms.
Professor Mirmina has taught Space Law at Georgetown University Law Center since 2011. He has also taught at the University of Connecticut School of Law and Vanderbilt Law School and has served periodically as a Visiting Faculty Member at Yale Law School since 2019.
Professor Mirmina is a co-author of International Space Law and Space Laws of the United States, a leading space law textbook used by law schools throughout the United States and internationally. His principal area of legal scholarship concerns preserving the outer-space environment for the use of future generations. He has spoken and written extensively on the subject and has published more than twenty articles, including the American Journal of International Law, the Chicago Journal of International Law, Kluwer's Air and Space Law, and various American Bar Association publications, as well as a scholarly essay in the Harvard Law Review.
More recently, Professor Mirmina founded Planetary Solutions, PLLC, an international space law consultancy. Additional information is available at planetarysolutions.net.
Professor Mirmina earned an from LL.M. Leiden University in the Netherlands, an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law, all with honors.
Outside of work, Steve enjoys Argentine Tango dancing and scuba diving, although not at the same time.
Frans von der Dunk
Harvey and Susan Perlman Alumni Othmer Professor of Space Law, University of Nebraska College of Law
From 1990 to 1998 Frans, first as a co-director and later as director, has been responsible for the area of space law at the International Institute of Air and Space Law of the Leiden University’s Faculty of Law. He defended his dissertation on “Private Enterprise and Public Interest in the European ‘Spacescape’ in 1998.
In the years running up to the establishment of Black Holes in 2007, he realized that the academic environment of the Institute was insufficiently equipped to handle many of the increasing and increasingly divergent demands of the ‘outside world’ for non-academic support activities. Hence the establishment of Black Holes as the proper vehicle to pursue such opportunities.
In addition to establishing Black Holes, Frans has been appointed Professor of Space Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL) as of January 1, 2008. In this capacity he is responsible for the space law courses and some capita selecta courses in the context of the new LL.M. programme on Space, cyber and national security law that has been offered as of the academic year 2008-2009, as well as for research activities in the field of space law. In the course of 2008, moreover, he was nominated as the Harvey and Susan Perlman Alumni / Othmer Professor of Space Law, to underline the importance UNL attached to the Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law LLM programme. From 2020 through 2022 he acted as Associate Professor of Research with the Faculty of Law and Administration at Lazarski University, Warsaw, Poland.
Also, he has acted as the Legal Task Manager in a number of studies undertaken in particular within the context of leading European Commission projects, such as on European space policy, Galileo and GNSS, satellite communications, the Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security (GMES) project and earth observation. Much of his recent work furthermore focused on such topical issues as space tourism, the legal status of the Moon and other celestial bodies and the ‘sale-of-lunar-estate hoax’, and planetary protection.
Both formally and informally, he has served as adviser to the Dutch Government, a number of foreign Governments, the European Commission, the European Space Agency (ESA), the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Dutch National Aerospace Agency (NIVR), the Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA), the German Space Agency (DLR), the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), as well as a number of companies, and was member of the Advisory Group to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on the drafting of Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes relating to Outer Space. Such advisory work dealt with a broad area of issues related to space activities, such as space policy, international cooperation in space, national space law, privatization of space activities, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) (in particular Galileo), satellite communications, radio astronomy, and earth observation.