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THE BRUSSELS CONVENTION ON THE LIABILITY OF OPERATORS OF NUCLEAR SHIPS
law to deny access to its waters and harbors to nuclear ships licensed by another Contracting
State, even when it has formally complied with all the provisions of this Convention.”
Consequently, the Convention expressly presumed that special bilateral agreements
would be needed before nuclear-powered vessels would be able to enter foreign
waters. The assessment of safety standards were presumed to be subject to bilateral
negotiations between the licensing state and the state of the harbor. The participants
at the Conference adopted the NS Convention
inter alia
with the hope that a uniform
multilateral framework, created by this treaty, would make such negotiations easier.
22
The United States subsequently concluded a series of agreements related to the
NS
Savannah
(the
“Savannah agreements”
), which relied in matters of nuclear liability
on domestic law and, where applicable, on the “general principles of international
law”.
23
The Federal Republic of Germany concluded similar bilateral agreements in
relation to the NS Otto Hahn.
24
Another aspect of the scope of the Convention deserves very special mention,
because it has proven to be a major obstacle, preventing more than others the coming
into force of the convention. This is the inclusion of
nuclear-powered warships
under
the scope of the Convention. Being of a very special importance, this issue will be
discussed below in more detail.
Finally, the Convention (Article XIV)
25
provided that this treaty would supersede
any international agreements between parties in conflict with it. Among concerns,
international agreements touched by this provision at the time of adoption of the
NS Convention, the following were of major importance: the Brussels International
Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law with Respect to Collision
Between Vessels of 23 September, 1910, the Brussels International Convention for
the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to the Limitation of the Liability of Owners
of Sea-Going Vessels of 25 August 1924, the Brussels International Convention on
Certain Rules Concerning Civil Jurisdiction in Matters of Collision of 10 May 1952
and the Brussels International Convention Relating to the Limitation of the Liability
of Owners of Sea-Going Vessels of 10 October 1957.
26
22
Op. cit.
sub note 10, at p. 778.
23
A list of all these agreements as of 1 January 1968 was published in
Boulanger, W.
International
Conventions and Agreements on Nuclear Ships, In:
Nuclear Law for Developing World
, Vienna: IAEA
Legal Series. 1969, at pp. 179
et seq.
24
Articles 13-21 of the Agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Kingdom of the
Netherlands on the Use of Dutch Waters and Harbours by the NS Otto Hahn of 28 October 1968
(Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und den Königreich der Niederlande über die
Benutzung niederländischen Hoheitsgewässer und Häfen durch N. S. Otto Hahn) refers to the
Convention for its liability provisions. An English translation of the treaty appears in E.N.E.A. Nuclear
Law Bulletin, No. 3, 1969.
25
“This Convention shall supersede any International Conventions in force or open for signature, ratification
or accession at the date on which this Convention is opened for signature, but only to the extent that such
Conventions would be in conflict with it; however, nothing in this Article shall affect the obligations of
Contracting States to non-Contracting States arising under such International Conventions.”
26
Op. cit.
sub note 10, at p. 778.