Stephen Gorove; Legal Scholar on Space

Stephen Gorove, a Hungarian-born professor well ahead of his time who began working to develop laws governing outer space only a year after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, has died. He was 83.

Gorove, who taught law from 1965 to 1988 at the University of Mississippi and made the campus an international crucible for space law, died Monday in Oxford, Miss.

He advocated creation of a central entity to address legal problems relating to space exploration. His dream became reality last year with the NASA-funded National Remote Sensing and Space Law Center of Excellence on the Jackson campus.

With the Soviet Sputnik escalating the Cold War race for the moon, Gorove met in 1958 with international legal scholars at The Hague to discuss potential legal problems in space. When Gorove began his mission, he was teaching law at New York Law School. He carried it with him to the University of Denver and in 1965 to Ole Miss. Gorove was a longtime delegate to the United Nations Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, vice president of the International Institute of Space Law and was active in the International Astronautical Federation.

After the United States landed men on the moon in 1969, Gorove organized the first major National Conference on the Legal Implications of Man’s Landing on the Moon, hosting the meeting at Ole Miss.

He also developed the first regular space law course in American legal education, and in 1974 established the Journal of Space Law, the only legal periodical in the world covering such issues.

Gorove helped develop international treaties establishing jurisdictional boundaries and liability limits for space travel and problems. Nationally, he had an influence on discretionary rules enabling NASA to pay thousands of dollars for any property damage caused by falling space debris.

A prolific author, Gorove wrote books including “The Space Shuttle and the Law,” edited more than 20 books, headed his scientific journal’s editorial board for several years and contributed more than 200 articles to legal periodicals.

Born in Erendred, Hungary, Gorove graduated from the University of Budapest and later earned law and graduate degrees at Yale University. He held research positions at Yale and Georgetown universities before beginning his teaching career.

In 1977, the World Congress of the International Astronautical Federation gave Gorove a testimonial for his contributions to the development of space law. Three years ago the University of Mississippi founded the Stephen Gorove Society of International Law in his honor.

Gorove is survived by daughters Katherine Marie Gorove and Margaret Colleen Gorove; sons Stephen James Gorove and Michael Alexander Gorove; and two grandchildren.