Towards a New Act on Space Activities in the Czech Republic*
Jakub Handrlica
DSc (Law), Full Professor in Administrative Law, Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic), ORCID: 0000-0003-2274-0221
The legal framework for conducting activities in Outer Space is not yet present in the Law of the Czech Republic. However, the fact is that its adoption seems to be necessary in view of the current developments in the field of space exploitation, which has been referred to as a New Space Era. While in the past, any activity in Outer Space was the domain of States, the past decade has seen an intensive process of privatisation and commercialisation of space activities. The fact is that States continue to be responsible for their national activities in space under international law. This is why several States have already adopted their national regulations for space activities. This paper aims to sketch the future Act on Space Activities of the Czech Republic. Such an Act will have to include not only rules of a public law nature (authorisation, registration of space objects, surveillance) but also rules on civil liability for damages, which will constitute a lex specialis to the general civil law regulation.
Keywords: Space law; space activities; New Space Era
*This study is based on the author’s paper titled ‘České právo na prahu nové kosmické éry a skica budoucího zákona o kosmických činnostech’, which will be published by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in a collection of papers Pocta Karlu Eliášovi in 2025 and is herein published with permission.
