Michael S. Dodge currently serves as an Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Space Studies at the University of North Dakota. Prof. Dodge received his LL.M. degree in Aviation & Space Law from McGill University in the Fall of 2011. Before attending McGill, he obtained his J.D. in 2008 from the University of Mississippi School of Law, where he was also the first recipient of the Certificate in Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law. He obtained dual degrees in B.S. (in Biological Sciences) and B.A. (in Philosophy) in 2005, from the University of Southern Mississippi.

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Prof. Dodge’s research has included GNSS law, remote sensing law & regulation, environmental regulation of outer space, Space Traffic Management (STM), concepts of sovereignty and ownership rights in space, and the nexus of remote sensing technology with global humanitarian law and disaster relief law. Future studies include examination of future environmental regulatory structures for orbital space, as well as domestic United States legislation and its relationship with the precept of non-appropriation in outer space, including an analysis of the ownership of celestial resources from potential asteroid mining operations.