Mandatory terrorism cover in France (Article L. 126-2 of the Insurance Code)

France chose a mandate where London chose a pool reinsured by the government and optional for the buyer. The law of September 9, 1986 was passed after the wave of Paris bombings in 1985 and 1986. Since then, Article L. 126-2 of the Insurance Code has barred property insurance contracts from excluding damage caused by an attack or an act of terrorism on national territory. Those acts are read within the meaning of Articles 421-1 and 421-2 of the Criminal Code. Any clause to the contrary is deemed void. The cover follows the contract: direct physical damage, decontamination costs, and consequential financial loss, within the deductibles and limits it sets. It creates nothing the policy does not already contain. A policy without business interruption does not acquire one on the day of an attack, and non-damage business interruption stays outside. The system ran without public reinsurance until 2001. After September 11, reinsurers pulled their capacity. In 2002 the market set up GAREAT (Gestion de l'assurance et de la réassurance des risques attentats et actes de terrorisme), a co-reinsurance pool for large risks. CCR (Caisse centrale de réassurance) provides it with a government guarantee above a threshold. Classification weighs heavily at claim time: an attack requires a terrorist enterprise in the criminal law sense, which often leaves the insurer relying on the position of the national counterterrorism prosecutor's office. A riot, however violent, falls under a different cover and a different recourse, the claim against the state under Article L. 211-10 of the Internal Security Code. Bodily injury victims are compensated by the FGTI (Fonds de garantie des victimes des actes de terrorisme et d'autres infractions), outside the property contract.