Le Droit de l'espace

The first systematic legal treatise on space law in French, published in 1960 in the PUF "Que sais-je?" series. Charles Chaumont, professor of law at Nancy, charts the emergence of a legal framework for space activities in three parts: the advent of space law (rockets, the International Geophysical Year, the United Nations); the legal problems of space activities (freedom of space, the legal status of spacecraft, national competence and liability); and the legal problems of celestial bodies. The work argues that outer space constitutes a res communis governed by the principle of freedom, and that air law and maritime law provide the most productive analogies for building a legal regime for space.