CYIL 2014

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THE BRUSSELS CONVENTION ON THE LIABILITY OF OPERATORS OF NUCLEAR SHIPS

However, at the time the Conference was held it was already clear that several

issues of liability for owners of the nuclear–powered vessels needed to be discussed

further. Basically, there were three open issues especially to be examined in a more detail:

the establishment of an international guarantee fund or system of mutual guarantees,

establishment of an international jurisdictional procedure, and the opportunity for

international organizations to become contracting parties to the Convention.

The Standing Committee of the Diplomatic Conference on Maritime Law met

once again in Monaco from 24 to 31 October 1963 and from 24 June to 1 July 1964

in order to discuss the three issues outlined above. A legal report was prepared to deal

with these issues and be submitted to the Belgian Government. However, no further

steps were accomplished in these matters during the decades after the Conference

was held.

Regarding enforcement of the convention, the NS Convention, Article XXIV

(1) contains the following preconditions:

“This Convention shall come into force three

months after the deposit of an instrument of ratification by at least one licensing State

and one other State.”

Concerning this, it should be pointed out that, originally, it was

proposed that at least two licensing states should ratify the NS Convention before

enforcement. This requirement was later modified, in order to give the Convention a

greater chance to succeed. However, the actual situation among states involved in the

NS Convention was rather pessimistic. Only a few states taking part in the Brussels

Diplomatic Conference decided to sign the Convention.

Nevertheless, only the

Republic of Lebanon (1975), the Portuguese Republic (1968) and the Kingdom of

the Netherlands (1974) have deposed their documents of ratification. Furthermore,

the Republic of Surinam did so as a

via facti

successor of the Netherlands in 1974,

and three other states acceded to the Convention (Republic of Madagascar in 1965,

Democratic Republic of Congo in 1967 and the Syrian Arab Republic in 1975).

Due to the fact that none of the current parties operates any nuclear-powered

vessels, the Convention has failed to enter into force since its adoption in the year 1962.

The following paragraphs will briefly point out the contents of the Convention, as well

as reasons why the treaty has not attracted more parties to join, as well as lessons for

future developments in this area.

Op. cit.

sub note 4, at p. 550.

Könz, P. Liability of operators of nuclear ships: The 1961 Brussels conference,

Progress in Nuclear

Energy,

1962, at p. 327.

Kingdom of Belgium, Republic of China (Taipei), Republic of Korea, Federal Republic of Germany,

Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Ireland, Republic of Lebanon, Republic of Liberia, Malaysia,

Principality of Monaco, Republic of Panama, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Republic of the Philippines,

Portuguese Republic, (then existing) United Arab Republic and (then existing) Yugoslavia.