World of the Bizarre

Weird legal claims in space

By T.K. Randall
June 4, 2012 ·  18 comments

Image Credit: NASA It seems like a no-brainer that making claim to other worlds wouldn't be acceptable in a court of law yet over the years several people have attempted to do exactly that. Earlier this year in Quebec, Sylvio Langvein walked in to a courthouse and declared himself the owner of all the planets in the solar system and four of Jupiter's moons. Judge Alain Michaud dismissed the case outright, calling Langvein a "quarrelsome litigant" and accused him of abusing the legal system.

In 1949 James Thomas Mangan founded his own nation called the "Nation of Celestial Space" and laid claim to the whole universe. Mangan sent 74 letters to various countries in an effort to gain official recognition and even applied to join the UN but was predictably rejected.[!gad]It seems like a no-brainer that making claim to other worlds wouldn't be acceptable in a court of law yet over the years several people have attempted to do exactly that. Earlier this year in Quebec, Sylvio Langvein walked in to a courthouse and declared himself the owner of all the planets in the solar system and four of Jupiter's moons. Judge Alain Michaud dismissed the case outright, calling Langvein a "quarrelsome litigant" and accused him of abusing the legal system.

In 1949 James Thomas Mangan founded his own nation called the "Nation of Celestial Space" and laid claim to the whole universe. Mangan sent 74 letters to various countries in an effort to gain official recognition and even applied to join the UN but was predictably rejected.

Source: Wired | Comments (18)

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