Metalaw – What is it good for?

Abstract

The initial metalaw debate about relations with ETI since the mid-to-late 1950s advocated a transmogrification of the traditional Golden Rule into “Do unto others as they would be done by”. The reasoning built upon full equality between humans and ETI and on extrapolations from Kant’s Categorical Imperative. Later iterations used thermodynamics, technology, economics, and altruism to shape the contours of universally valid ethical and legal principles. This paper aims to critique the intellectual foundations of the debate and argue, firstly, that despite its attempts at avoiding anthropocentrism in its deontology, it cannot evade the banal fact that so far only humans have contributed to the discussion. Secondly, it fails to acknowledge the diverse scenarios to be realistically expected in the case of contact. Thirdly, it omits recognition of the realpolitik environment surrounding such an encounter, for which there is ample empirical evidence in interhuman legal and political relationships. Ultimately, current unilateral human reflection about a cosmic metalaw is premature and the focus of the discussion should be on the parameters of the human response to a contact event, the quality and impact of which is unknown and unknowable until it occurs.