ABSTRACT
The new French space legislation adopted on 3 June 2008 is timely and helpful in a space context open to widening perspectives of commercialisation and privatisation and to novel international co-operation, such as the establishment of the Russian Soyuz launcher on the GSC base. It must be understood that the operator is exempted from financial liability in case of an act or omission committed either by the state claiming compensation, or by physical or juridical persons claiming compensation. The Centre National des Etudes Spatiales (CNES) must have also delivered an opinion on the compliance to the Technical Regulation. The absence of a serious disregard of the requirements of the authorisation, this condition has been specified in the 2008 Corrective Finances Act. Space contracts, whether for satellite manufacture, launch or the satellite exploitation, have hence seen certain specific and novel clauses, such as waivers of liability.
