Projekt polskiego prawa kosmicznego – regulacja na miarę XXI wieku?
Polish Draft Space Law – a Regulation Appropriate for the 21th Century?

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to present the provisions of the draft Act of 10 July 2017 on space activities and the National Register of Space Objects, adopted by the Ministry of Development and Finance, in the context of solutions adopted in selected European countries and in international public law in the era of the development of the space sector (New Space). The main research hypothesis is the question whether the proposed legal regulation constitutes a solution meeting the challenges of the 21st century. The proposed regulations have been analysed in detail in terms of the rules of licensing of space activities, the registration of space objects and liability for damage inflicted by them, as well as in terms of third party insurance with reference to solutions adopted in France, Finland and Holland and the international standard. The formaldoctrinal method and the comparative law method have been applied in the analysis. The conclusion contains the assessment of the Polish space law provisions under analysis, which have been found to be in principle correct and relatively coherent. It has been stressed that, in general, the assumptions of the Polish draft act comply with the international law standard and the legal regulations of selected European countries. Nevertheless, the absence of regulations concerning, for example, the issue of suborbital space flights or space mining, and insufficient regulations concerning the protection of space environment (space debris) have been evaluated critically. A thesis is presented in the conclusion whereby, despite the deficiencies noted, the Polish draft space law is a real answer of the lawmaker to the challenges involved in the development of the space market and is a regulation appropriate for the 21st century.

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