Black Holes

PROJECTS
CAREER
MEDIA
TUTORIALS
GET IN TOUCH

THAT'S RIGHT…

Since 2007, Black Holes is the answer to your governance and business challenges under space law.

This company provides professional advice and tailor-made modules, connecting the legal parameters and ramifications in a no-nonsense manner to the broader aspects of any space activity or application.

Find out how Black Holes can boost your professional activities.

PROJECTS

Whether you need specific advice on legal issues, or a workshop for your entire department, your project deserves its own tailored service.

Black Holes offers a variety of services for any space activity or application:

researching, analyzing and evaluating the legal, regulatory, policy and political framework
conducting legal reality checks and presenting results by way of reports and presentations
providing advice and recommendations on future actions
developing, offering and monitoring tailor-made modules and self-study programmes for professionals
organizing meetings, workshops and addressing audiences on legal, regulatory, policy and political aspects

Black Holes can rely on extensive project experience, varying from limited assignments to the legal work in multimillion-euro research projects. Clients have included governments, space agencies, international organizations (both intergovernmental and non-governmental) and private companies.

For reasons of confidentiality, in many cases the details of projects and project results cannot be shared. In such cases, you may contact Black Holes for more information.

To get an impression of past projects, select your category of interest below. Use ctrl-F or cmd-F to search in each category.

International governance & cooperation

National & regional space law & policy

Space applications & science

The moon & other celestial bodies

Space & security

Theory of law & ethics

CAREER

OVERVIEW

BIOGRAPHY

PUBLICATIONS

MEMBERSHIPS

From 1990 to 1998 Frans, first as a co-director and later as director, has been responsible for the area of space law at the International Institute of Air and Space Law of the Leiden University’s Faculty of Law. He defended his dissertation on “Private Enterprise and Public Interest in the European ‘Spacescape’ in 1998.

In the years running up to the establishment of Black Holes in 2007, he realized that the academic environment of the Institute was insufficiently equipped to handle many of the increasing and increasingly divergent demands of the ‘outside world’ for non-academic support activities. Hence the establishment of Black Holes as the proper vehicle to pursue such opportunities.

In addition to establishing Black Holes, Frans has been appointed Professor of Space Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL) as of January 1, 2008. In this capacity he is responsible for the space law courses and some capita selecta courses in the context of the new LL.M. programme on Space, cyber and national security law that has been offered as of the academic year 2008-2009, as well as for research activities in the field of space law. In the course of 2008, moreover, he was nominated as the Harvey and Susan Perlman Alumni / Othmer Professor of Space Law, to underline the importance UNL attached to the Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law LLM programme. From 2020 through 2022 he acted as Associate Professor of Research with the Faculty of Law and Administration at Lazarski University, Warsaw, Poland.

Also, he has acted as the Legal Task Manager in a number of studies undertaken in particular within the context of leading European Commission projects, such as on European space policy, Galileo and GNSS, satellite communications, the Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security (GMES) project and earth observation. Much of his recent work furthermore focused on such topical issues as space tourism, the legal status of the Moon and other celestial bodies and the ‘sale-of-lunar-estate hoax’, and planetary protection.

Both formally and informally, he has served as adviser to the Dutch Government, a number of foreign Governments, the European Commission, the European Space Agency (ESA), the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Dutch National Aerospace Agency (NIVR), the Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA), the German Space Agency (DLR), the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), as well as a number of companies, and was member of the Advisory Group to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on the drafting of Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes relating to Outer Space. Such advisory work dealt with a broad area of issues related to space activities, such as space policy, international cooperation in space, national space law, privatization of space activities, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) (in particular Galileo), satellite communications, radio astronomy, and earth observation.

MEDIA

VIDEO

AUDIO

ARTICLES & BLOGS

Frans has given multiple interviews and has spoken on numerous smaller and larger events. These videos show his passion as well as his expertise. Select Audio for radio interviews and Articles for a selection of news articles about space law.

Show less videos

Talks on Law - Weaponization of Outer Space

Chai on the Moon - Who Owns The Moon?

Reuters: ’Satellite companies duke it out in the ‘Wild West’ of inner space’

Talks on Law - Space Law and Rights to Mineral Resources in Outer Space, Part 1

Talks on Law - Space Law and Rights to Mineral Resources in Outer Space, Part 2

Space commercialization and space mining

Law and Liberty on the Moon

PINC Sarasota

The Russian claim to Venus

Space militarization and the Space Force

Space resources utilization and framework

PINC Zeist

How humanity fell in love with space rocks

Asteroid mining in space: is it legal?

TEDxVienna

Pauw en Witteman: Chinese on the moon

Tegenlicht: Race naar de ruimte

Resource utilisation and space law

Space Law

Schmid Law Library STIR Talks

Asteroids don't know borders

Cosmic man/ The story of the only romanian who flew in the space, Dumitru Dorin Prunariu - Trailer from Elena Nazare on Vimeo.

The story of the only Romanian who flew in space

Trump and the Space Force

Cleveringa Meeting - Freedom, Outer Space, and the Role of the Law

International Law and the Use of Force in Outer Space

Handling Private Space Activities: The Role of National Space Legislation

GET IN TOUCH

During lecture periods for the Space, Cyber and Telecom Law Programme, Frans can also be contacted at the College of Law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Black Holes BV is a company registered with the Chamber of Commerce in Leiden, The Netherlands, under number 28116022. Black Holes VAT-number is NL817982140B01.

EMAIL

Black Holes BV

frans@black-holes.eu

University of Nebraska

fvonderdunk2@unl.edu

ADDRESS

Black Holes BV

Witte Singel 85
2311BP Leiden
The Netherlands

University of Nebraska

Room 214, College of Law
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
United States

PHONE

Black Holes BV

+31(0)6 48460318

University of Nebraska

+1-402-472-1240

The world's leading consultancy company in space law

200

210

50x