Michael Dodge

Michael S. Dodge currently serves as an Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Space Studies at the University of North Dakota. Prior to joining the faculty at UND, Prof. Dodge was Research Counsel & Law Instructor at the University of Mississippi School of Law's program in Air & Space Law. Before teaching at UoM Law, Prof. Dodge received his LL.M. degree in Aviation & Space Law from McGill University in the Fall of 2011 (thesis: “Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and the GPS-Galileo Agreement”). Before attending McGill, he obtained his J.D. in 2008 from the University of Mississippi School of Law, where he was also the first recipient of the Certificate in Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law. He obtained dual degrees in B.S. (in Biological Sciences) and B.A. (in Philosophy) in 2005, from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Prof. Dodge teaches several courses for Space Studies, including History of the Space Age (SpSt 551), Space Politics and Policy (SpSt 560), Space Law (SpSt 565), Remote Sensing Law and Policy (SpSt 575), and Space & the Environment (SpSt 545). These courses include a multitude of historical, political, and legal facets to space activities, and cover subjects such as legal issues in space exploration; regulation, privacy law, and constitutional concerns surrounding the use of remote sensing technology; licensing and regulatory requirements for space activity; the historical and evolutionary nature of space policy (both nationally and internationally); public international law; and domestic United States legal governance of space activity.

Prof. Dodge’s research has included GNSS law, remote sensing law & regulation, environmental regulation of outer space, Space Traffic Management (STM), concepts of sovereignty and ownership rights in space, and the nexus of remote sensing technology with global humanitarian law and disaster relief law. Future studies include examination of future environmental regulatory structures for orbital space, as well as domestic United States legislation and its relationship with the precept of non-appropriation in outer space, including an analysis of the ownership of celestial resources from potential asteroid mining operations.