[law] If aliens were to establish a colony on Earth

[Chitose]

If alien were to establish a colony on earth, do they need human permission?

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let's say they show up on sky where not belong to any country and create artificial island on international water to set up their own colony.
even assume that they were caution and completely sure that they will not cause any environment impact.

in term of lawsuit on earth..
do they have right to do that? or they need human permission to do so?

do we human have the very right to completely 'own' planet Earth to the level no any alien being allow to openly do anything without our permission?

 

[DaveC426913]

Interesting question.

We can make whatever laws we want, and decide to enforce them.

But us deciding they need permission is only meaningful if the aliens decide they wish to recognize our laws (say, for the sake of peaceful co-existence).
But they don't have to, in which case, we would remain in a first contact status: we either negotiate treaties with them, or we and they are at war (though that does not necessarily mean immediate violence).

I can tell you pretty confidently that we would definitely do our best to ensure that, if they took up residence, they do so with our conditions met, and would do everything in our power to maintain the upper-hand.

 

[Drakkith]

If alien were to establish a colony on earth, do they need human permission?

Only if we could stop them. If not, then they don't need our permission.

in term of lawsuit on earth..

Our laws probably wouldn't apply to them.

do we human have the very right to completely 'own' planet Earth to the level no any alien being allow to openly do anything without our permission?

There are no intrinsic rights, only rights which we choose to give to people.

 

[phinds]

do we human have the very right to completely 'own' planet Earth to the level no any alien being allow to openly do anything without our permission?

Just change that to "do we Native Americans have the right to completely own North America to the level of having European colonists not being allowed to openly do anything without our permission?"

Or, "Do we native Australians ...?"

Or, "Do we native South Africans ... ?"

 

[Chitose]

to me, even we are native on Earth doesn't mean we completely 'own' thing (in term of unmovable like 'land')
if new comer don't interfere with native very own way of life, to me, they don't need permission...

be it human&alien or native american&European colonists
(but we all know how European colonist treats the native... dark history indeed...)

but uneasiness is very true if alien were to set up shop on earth.
I just wonder in term of law.

from what I learn, our law only apply in each country
but in international water, there's no specific law and only base on subject native law (like... US ship will have US law apply on it)

so... alien law?

 

[Drakkith]

to me, even we are native on Earth doesn't mean we completely 'own' thing (in term of unmovable like 'land')
if new comer don't interfere with native very own way of life, to me, they don't need permission...

Unfortunately it's essentially impossible not to interfere somewhat. Even the very presence of aliens can cause fear and create problematic situations. Besides, we have an agreement with other countries that we won't come over and just take their land or control their skies or sea for our own purposes. Why would aliens be any different? What if they decided to claim your backyard as their own? What if you really enjoyed gardening and they set up their floating city above your house so your garden couldn't grow?

but uneasiness is very true if alien were to set up shop on earth.
I just wonder in term of law.

from what I learn, our law only apply in each country
but in international water, there's no specific law and only base on subject native law (like... US ship will have US law apply on it)

so... alien law?

There are no laws that would apply unless the aliens choose to follow those laws or we had the power to enforce them. The citizens here in the U.S. have given the federal, state, and local governments the legal power and ability to enforce those laws which are passed. If the governments did not have the ability to enforce those laws then it wouldn't matter what laws were passed. No one would obey them. For example, cannabis has been illegal to grow, sell, or possesses according to federal law, but several states have chosen not to enforce these laws and the federal government doesn't have the ability to prosecute every individual possessing cannabis. So even though it is technically illegal, it just doesn't matter in many cases.

I'm sure you could find many other examples if you looked.

 

[rokytnji]

To me. Alien means they do not even think like I or you do. So our opinions are probably moot to them. Our Tech and Wishes also. If they wanted to invade or settle. One virus would be the ticket I would think.

But I do like to ride to the Marfa lights once in while.

 

[diogenesNY]

One possible thing to keep in mind is that creating artificial islands (especially with a notion of sovereignty over them) is a politically fraught activity and would bring up a host of issues, notwithstanding the alien origin of the reclaimers. Chinese efforts to build artificial islands and make territorial claims based on them have created a bit of a legal tumult. There is a lot of discussion (legal, international and otherwise) on this subject out there on the web.

--diogenesNY

 

[CWatters]

If laws don't give aliens the same rights as humans they could probably pay a human agent to act for them. I accept gold and a range of other rare elements, but would also consider "interlectual property" in such fields as immortality, alchemy etc.

 

[CWatters]

Putting aside the argument that our laws don't apply to aliens...

Why build an island? There is still land in the UK that has no registered owner and a 10-12 year process by which it can be claimed. If the land has no owner then nobody can legally evict them so they might even be able to live there while waiting.

They would need to comply with planning law but if they have four legs and eat grass they could claim their use of the land was agricultural so planning permission may not be required.

 

[BillTre]

Here is a thread about a recent American court ruling on non-human legal status.
I think legally its somewhat similar.