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John Cobb Cooper Records
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library [Contact Us]3460 Chestnut Street, Biddle Law Library, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3406
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
John Cobb Cooper, Jr., a pioneer in the field of international law regarding air and space, was born on September 18, 1887 in Jacksonville, Florida. Cooper studied at Princeton University and received his A.B. in 1909. Cooper continued his education in the field of law and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1911. In 1917, Cooper enlisted in the U.S. Navy and eventually reached the rank of lieutenant by the end of World War I. Cooper married Martha Helen Marvel in 1918 and the couple had three children: two girls and a boy. A year later he was relieved from active service and became a member of the Naval Reserve. In 1921 his rank became Lieutenant-Commander.
Relieved from active duty, Cooper served as Editor-in-Chief of the Florida State Bar Association Law Journal from 1927-1934. He was appointed to the International Technical Committee of Legal Aerial Experts from 1932–1934. He became Vice President of Pan American Airways from 1934–1945, and served on the board of directors from 1944–1946. In 1947 he served as a consultant to the U.S. President's Air Policy Commission. He was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, 1945–1950. It was at this time that Cooper began writing and presenting his papers on the legal issues surrounding air space. From the early 1950s through the end of his life, Cooper served as the legal counsel to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
In 1951, Cooper founded the Institute of Air & Space Law at McGill University in Montreal. This Institution had become the U.N. body charged with safety in air navigation known as the International Civil Aviation Organization. In 1952 he was awarded his LL.D. from McGill University. From 1951–57 he was professor of International Air Law at McGill University, becoming the first director of the Institute of International Air Law, after which he was named Professor Emeritus. John Cobb Cooper, Jr. died on July 22, 1967.
Materials in the John Cobb Cooper Records were selected by Cooper so they could be donated to the Anna and Jonas Berger Memorial Space Law Collection at the Biddle Law Library. The collection primarily consists of papers Cooper wrote, presented, or published in various journals from 1946-1966. Other materials in the collection include correspondence, unpublished bibliography on Aerospace Law Writings from 1931-1965 by John Cobb Cooper, reference material on space science, Cooper's curriculum vitae, and handwritten flash cards with bibliographic information.
1. Anna and Jonas Berger Memorial Space Law Collection
Processed by Hoang Tran, November 2012.
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library
- Finding Aid Author
- Hoang Tran
- Finding Aid Date
- 2012 November
- Access Restrictions
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The archives reserves the right to restrict access to materials of sensitive nature. Please contact the department for further information.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Collection Inventory
Series consists of materials John Cobb Cooper donated to the Anna and Jonas Berger Memorial Space Law Collection. Contains one correspondence composed by John Cobb Cooper regarding his donation of outer space papers to the Anna and Jonas Berger Memorial Space Law Collection. The recipient of the correspondence is Professor Morris Cohen, librarian of Biddle Law Library. Also contains an enclosed list prepared by Cooper of items that were to be donated for the collection.
Subsubseries contains the donated papers that John Cobb Cooper shipped to the Biddle Law Library for the Anna and Jonas Berger Memorial Space Law Collection. This collection only has 53 of the total 54 papers listed as donated papers. The missing paper is #53, Contiguous Zones in Aerospace - Preventive and Protective Jurisdiction published in JAG L. Rev., September-October 1965.
Researchers interested in the missing paper, #53, Contiguous Zones in Aerospace - Preventive and Protective Jurisdiction can find a digitized copy here:
http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/airfor7&div=42&g_sent=1&collection=journals
Processed to the item-level and arranged according to how John Cobb Cooper compiled the materials for donation which looks to be chronological. The dates on each item reflect when the paper was published not when it was presented.
File also contains the publication translated in German; Bemannte Weltraumlaboratorien Eine Entscheidung von groBer rechtlicher und politischer Bedeutung.
File also contains the publication translated in French; A Qui Appartiendra la Lune? Necessite D'Une Response, as well as two reprinted copies by Princeton Quarterly Winter 1965-1966.
Subseries contains a bibliography of John Cobb Cooper's aerospace law writings between 1931 - 1965, reference material on space research prepared by Cooper for the University of Pennsylvania Library, group of index cards with short handwritten bibliographic information (title, publication, year, pages, etc.) regarding Cooper's donated papers for the Anna and Jonas Berger Memorial Space Law Collection, and a document that resembles a curriculum vitae or resume but not written in the first person.
File consists of five copies of Cooper's published paper in the March 1967 issue of Space Digest, Some Crucial Questions About the Space Treaty: a commentary by John Cobb Cooper.