Expressions of interest to be submitted by October 2024.
Professor Michael BohlanderChair in Global Law and SETI Policy| Durham University | UK
The reluctance of the vast majority of SETI and some UAP researchers to take non-repeatable personal alien encounter narratives into account is a staple trope in the general alien encounter and UAP debate. However, the proof of the pudding would seem to lie in investigating the very practical consequences of the use of encounter testimony of all sorts in legal proceedings, for example, when examining how courts would react to a claim that somebody had a car accident because she was buzzed by a UFO or distracted by a sighting while driving etc. In the age of increasingly ubiquitous dashcam footage, for example, we might now even have new sources of evidence to complement the personal narrative.
The papers invited for this special issue are meant to engage with the rules of the evaluation of evidence in court proceedings, take a look at the principles of forensic witness psychology, and how the interplay might influence the outcome of a case in real life. After an initial survey of potential past court cases involving alien encounter narratives of any kind in their respective countries, the papers will focus on two case studies – one civil and one criminal law – to be addressed according to each author’s domestic legal system, and on a third case study on general witness psychology.
Details can be found at Call For Papers (uapstudies.org).
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