Private International Law and Space Insurance

Space insurance is a fascinating subject for consideration on any ground, including private international law. However, it is also full of pitfalls, which arise from the fact that, on the one hand, it cannot be classified as space contracts, although in practice they belong to the space ecosystem. On the other hand, insurance law still fails to regard space insurance as a separate type of insurance, although evidence of its distinctiveness in practice provides all too much. In addition, the challenge of insuring space risks increases significantly with the growth of the space sector as well as the entry of small entities deserving protection and the emergence of new types of space activities, such as suborbital activities or in-orbit servicing or, finally, space tourism. We have to bear in mind that the expansion of space activities and their vital importance to our daily lives causes the increase in the risks and consequently the pressure of adopting regulations, including laws imposing the obligation to insure these risks. Thus, the problematics of the conflict of laws in the space sector will expectedly gain more attention over time. The objective of the author is to present the space insurance aspects in the context of private international law. It seems important due to the inherently international nature of the space sector and space insurance, as well as the increasing significance of the space sector and, along with that, the potential for disputes.