Legal Commentary

I wanted to start by thanking the permanent residents of PrawfsBlawg for inviting me back for another month-long visit.  I'm looking forward to it, especially since it's sort of a virtual reunion with my co-clerk and friend Andy Siegel, who will also be visiting here this month as well.

Since it's summer time, and I'm catching up on Lost episodes, I wanted to use my first post to get something off my chest that's been bothering me for a long time.  A recent story on Canada's (!) search for astronauts for its  space program brought it back to mind.  Here are the educational requirements the Canadian Space Agency has listed on its solicitation for applicants:

• a Bachelor' degree recognized in Canada, in one of the following areas:
  • Engineering or Applied Sciences
  • Science (e.g. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Mathematics, Computer Science, etc.)
• The bachelor's degree must be followed by at least two years of related professional experience.
  OR
• a bachelor's degree along with a master's degree or a doctoral degree recognized in Canada, in one of the following areas:
  • Engineering or Applied Sciences
  • Science (e.g. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Mathematics, Computer Science, etc)
  OR
• a license to practice medicine in a province or a territory of Canada.

Here's my problem with this.  It seems to me that any time you have a show about a desert island or a solicitation for people to live in space or colonize the bottom of the ocean, in fiction or reality, people want scientists and engineers and doctors, but never any lawyers.  The fact that doctors get all the love is especially hard to stomach, since I have a few in my immediate family.  I find the whole thing very disappointing, not least because it means that I will only get to travel to space if I pay for it (unlikely on an academic salary) or if our society somehow runs out of engineers or doctors to send. 

I can understand the preference for people with skills that will have some immediate utility in survival situations, but I think these writers and space agencies are overlooking some of the very real and practical talents that lawyers bring to the desert-island or space-station scenario  Take Lost, for instance.  Sure, Jack can do spinal surgery and stitch up wounds.  But don't you think a good lawyer would have been able to negotiate some sort of  settlement with the Others or devise some transparent form of governance to take the place of the elitist clique that seems to run the show?  And any lawyer worth his salt would have presented compelling moral and legal arguments to keep Sayid and Jack from torturing Sawyer in Season 1, right?  Right?  OK, maybe that last one's not such a great example.  But surely a lawyer would be worth at least a few episodes of comic relief, like Arzt, the high school science teacher who blew himself up at the end of Season 1.  Maybe Ben will turn out to be a lawyer.

I'm having a harder time coming up with examples of uses for lawyers in space stations, but I'm sure you can help me out in the comments.