Space Law in the European Context

This book provides a comprehensive study on space law and policy in France. It should be of assistance for all practitioners be they in the private or the public sector, for drafting or taking decisions on the matter of norms and agreements relating to space activities, such as contracts, partnerships, licensing, negotiations as well as the adoption of laws and regulations, and furthermore for all of those - scholars or practitioners - who have to interpret or implement these instruments.

It is also a valuable contribution for all those who are calling for the development of harmonized and enhanced space law in the international context of "new space".

It describes in its first part the role played by the Law to build up the French Space Policy though the establishment of CNES, the French space agency. It presents, from the early sixties to nowadays, CNES functioning and how its public space projects are authorized, financed and controlled by the Government and Parliament and implemented in an international and national framework, especially as regard to relation with the private industry. The interactions with the European governance, legal instruments and space programs of the European Space agency (ESA) and the European Union (EU) are also discussed.

Its second part details in the legal background, the law-making process among parliament government, industry, experts and CNES, the current functioning of the French Space Operation Act of 2008 as a legal instrument designed to regulate and promote the private space entrepreneurship under its jurisdiction.

The annexes of this book contains the whole legislation in French version and English translation, and unpublished working documents: a comparison list of usual space law definitions and a table of concordance on different technical provisions between different FSOA texts and several international standards on space.