Christopher J. Newman, BA(Hons), PhD is Professor of Space Law and Policy at Northumbria University at Newcastle in the United Kingdom. He is active in the teaching and research of space law and has published extensively on the legal and ethical underpinnings of space governance. Christopher is regularly invited to lecture in universities and at specialist conferences on space law and policy across the UK and internationally.
Christopher graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in History with English and American Studies. After working in the Metropolitan Police, he studied at Northumbria University for his Postgraduate Diploma in Law (CPE) and his Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice (LPC) and secured a training contract in a small high street firm of Solicitors in Hartlepool. Christopher left legal practice in 2004 and joined the University of Sunderland where he obtained his PhD in Cross-Comparative Public Order Law in 2011, becoming Reader in Law in 2013.
Christopher is a member of the International Institute of Space Law and spoke at the 2017 UK Space Conference in Manchester. He was one of a panel of three judges in the final of the European round of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot held in Glasgow in 2016. He is a member of the British Interplanetary Society and contributed to their celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty.
Christopher has also acted as a consultant on space law matters to commercial law firms and has been lead academic on a successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP). He is keen to collaborate across traditional academic disciplinary boundaries having worked with closely with members of the military, ethicists, astrophysicists and space technologists.
Christopher has made numerous TV and radio appearances in the UK speaking as an expert on space law and policy issues. He has appeared on Sky News at 1 with Adam Boulton, BBC Radio 4 Today, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC World Service TV. Christopher is available for media comment on all matters in respect of space law and policy.
