At first glance, the triumphs and travails of Captain Jean Luc Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise might seem light years from international trouble spots such as Kosovo and Iraq or the problems of the global environment and terrorism.

Not so says Michael Scharf, professor at the CWRU School of Law and a former State Department official who has authored a chapter in the new book Star Trek: Visions of Law and Justice (Adios Press, 2002).

Timed to coincide with the recent release of the 10th Star Trek film, "Star Trek: Nemesis," Scharf and a group of other legal scholars have brought the final frontier closer to home through their new book. Scharf's chapter is entitled "The Interstellar Relations of the Federation:International Law and Star Trek: The Next Generation."

According to Scharf, the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" films and television series are unique in that they regularly deal with principles, if applied in a more terrestrial context, that would be indistinguishable from contemporary international law.

Nearly a third of the program's 177 episodes, which run nightly in syndication in the United States and in 50 other countries, focus on what could be described as international legal issues. Contemporary subjects such as pre-emptive self-defense, the laws of war, the global environment, treaty interpretation and trial of terrorists are staples of this fictional galactic odyssey.

Scharf contends that Star Trek offers a novel and effective way to teach international law at any level-something that is becoming increasingly important with today's globalization of business and trade.

"'Star Trek: The Next Generation' has become such an important part of our popular culture that many of today's students are likely to be more familiar with Picard than Pol Pot, Klingons than Koreans, and can more easily identify the demilitarized zone between the Federation and the Romulan Empire (the focus of the new movie) than between Iraq and Kuwait," Scharf said. "Rather than decry the decline of cultural literacy among students, teachers can take advantage of students' existing store of knowledge about Star Trek to demonstrate the intricacies of international law and policy."

Scharf's book chapter was initially published as an article in the University of Toledo Law Review and has been cited in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly by the U.S. ambassador on innovative ways to disseminate international law.