Proceedings of the Workshop - United Nations Office for Outer ...

3.5. South Africa and the United KingdomNeither the United Kingdom nor the South African legislation require launch operators tohave compulsory third party insurance, though both laws specifically allow the government toimpose such a condition upon the grant of a licence. It is presumed that, except in the case ofscientific or educational organisations, such a condition would be imposed.In relation to indemnification, the United Kingdom law requires a licensee to indemnifythe Government against any claim brought against it concerning damage or loss arising from thelicensed activities. 137 Unless specifically required as a condition of the licence, it wouldpresumably be a commercial discretion on the part of the licensee whether to attain third partyinsurance. In the case of South Africa, the liability to be passed on to the private operator isdetermined by the Government as a condition of licence on a case-by-case basis. 1383.6. Other Civil Law StatesIn Sweden, the law requires the private operator to indemnify the Government in case ofany liability arising from international law. 139 However, similar to the position in the UnitedKingdom, there is no specific legal requirement on the private operator to obtain third partyinsurance, though presumably the Government may choose to impose this requirement as acondition of licence, even though such discretion is not explicitly stated in the law.Niklas Hedman suggested that special statutes exist to deal with the strict liability ofprivate operators to reimburse liability incurred by the State. 1404. Procedure4.1. OverviewThe domestic legislation dealing with launch activities do not tend to specify theparticular procedures to be adopted by domestic claimants or foreign claimants wishing to pursuelocal remedies. It is presumed that, in the case of domestic remedies, the claimants would utiliseexisting domestic legal mechanisms, courts and tribunals to pursue their claims.One notable exception is that of Australia, which specifically details the procedure to beadopted in the case of a liability claim in its legislation.4.2. Case Study: Australia 141The Space Activities Act provides for proceedings for compensation under the Act to bebrought in the Federal Court of Australia within one year from the day the damage occurred orthe day the plaintiff became aware of the damage or would have become aware of the damage if137 Outer Space Act 1986 (UK), Section 10.138 Space Affairs Act 1993 (SA), Section 14.139 Act on Space Activities 1982 (Sweden), Section 6.140 Niklas Hedman, Presentation of the Swedish Legislation on Space Activities, in PROCEEDINGS OF THEPROJECT 2001 WORKSHOP ON NATIONAL SPACE LEGISLATION: NEEDS AND PROSPECTS FOR NATIONALSPACE LEGISLATION 136 at 137.141 For more information, see Lee, supra note 135.