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Professor Michael Bohlander

Chair in Global Law and SETI Policy


Affiliations
Affiliation
Chair in Global Law and SETI Policy in the Durham Law School

Biography

Professor Bohlander has been the International Co-Investigating Judge in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia since 2015. From 2017 until 2022, he was also an international judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. He joined Durham University in 2004 as a full professor, having previously been a life-tenured member of the German judiciary since 1991. He has published widely on German law, English and Welsh criminal law, comparative and international criminal law, and Islamic law. 

Since 2020, his main focus has been on the consequences of a potential contact with extraterrestrial intelligence for human law and society in the wider sense.

In his view, the distinction between traditional SETI as astronomical research for signals, bio- or technosignatures in outer space on the one hand, and UAP research into objects near or on Earth on the other, is artificial and arbitrary: If the premise is that (some) UAPs are of non-human, extraterrestrial origin, then they fall squarely under the search for technosignatures.

It also bears pointing out that UAP research can and often does happen in real time, whereas astronomical SETI can only ever present information about past events, often in the more distant past. This is the consequence of interstellar distances and the light speed barrier. An example is the nearest star system to Earth, Alpha Centauri, the closest star of which, Proxima Centauri, is 4.25 light years away. In the recent case of  the alleged discovery of a chemical element indicative of possible biological processes in the atmosphere of Planet K2-18b in the constellation of Leo, that information was 124 years old when it reached us. It was thus far from current, as the impression created in the media may sometimes suggest.

Also, unlike SETI, UAP research must address the "high strangeness" aspects often reported by the so-called "experiencers", such as alleged abductions or other encounters with non-human entities, which in many cases have a strong likeness to what is otherwise called the paranormal. These defy traditonal scientific methods and as such related research is often discarded as pseudo-science by the natural sciences. However, they present a field for which medicine and social science methods may be better suited.

In all scenarios, academic rigour is of the utmost importance, as expressed in the Durham Declaration of 24 April 2025.

 

Links on SETI and UAP research

 

The Durham Declaration - Translations

Professor Bohlander Files Submission of Written Evidence on SETI and UAP to House of Lords Select Committee on UK Engagement with Space

Recordings and materials on the Symposium “Grounding the SETI and UAP Debate” of 24 April 2025

Durham Law School Symposium and Durham Declaration on SETI and UAP Research Gain International Media Attention

Warten auf Godot - Sinn und Unsinn der gegenwärtigen Debatte zur UAP Disclosure

Letter to The Guardian - 14 Feb 2025

Contact with extraterrestrial intelligence and human law

Alien encounter narratives in a forensic environment

Rechtliche Aspekte des Kontakts mit ausserirdischer Intelligenz

Es ist an der Zeit, dass die Menschheit ein planetares Speziesbewusstsein entwickelt

Nachwort

"Joining the galactic club": what price admission?

Metalaw - What is it good for?

Interview: "Les OVNIs entrent à la Fac" (NEXUS May-June 2025)

Durham Declaration on SETI and UAP Research of 24 April 2025

Radio interview on Canadian Global News Radio 980 CKNW on US congressional UAP hearings

How would humans react to contact with extraterrestrials? - The Debrief

Academics at Durham law school and St Andrews university launch global online survey

Limina Special Volume

Human life after contact with extraterrestrial civilisations - Call for contributions

"Joining the Galactic Club" finalist in 2023 Canopus Awards

WTUFO Podcast with Caleb Mayo 12 April 2025

Grounding the SETI and UAP debate

"Take me to your lawyer" - The Micah Hanks Programme | Podcast

International Symposium on Professor Bohlander's book "Contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Human Law"

International Law and Life in Space: Developments

Alien Conversations

SETI and the Consequences

Research interests

  • Contact with extraterrestrial intelligence and its impact on human law
  • Legal aspects of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)
  • International and comparative criminal law

Publications

Authored book

Book review

Chapter in book

Conference Paper

Edited book

Journal Article

Manual

Newspaper/Magazine Article

Other (Print)

Scholarly Edition

Supervision students