CYIL 2014

132

JAKUB HANDRLICA

CYIL 5 ȍ2014Ȏ

limitation of operator liability. Pursuant to Article III (1),

“the liability of the operator

as regards one nuclear ship shall be limited to 1,500 million francs in respect of any one

nuclear incident notwithstanding that the nuclear incident may have resulted from any

fault or privity of that operator; such limit shall include neither any interest nor costs

awarded by a court in actions for compensation under this Convention.”

Concerning laying down liability limitations, it should be pointed out that even

this principle was not un-controversial during negotiations within the Convention.

Several countries defended the opinion that nuclear liability concerning the operation

of nuclear-powered military vessels should be unlimited. However, in the end it was

agreed to extend the benefit of limiting liability to military vessels as well.

A further controversy was linked to the setting of actual liability limits. Basically,

two trends were represented at the Conference, the difference comprised mainly in

the relation between liability limits and the possibilities within insurance markets.

One group of delegations taking part at the Conference, represented basically by

the United States, supported establishing a high limit of liability regardless of the

possibilities of the insurance market. The opposite view was represented mainly by

the Scandinavian states, the Soviet Union and Liberia, which favored setting the

limit of liability with regard to the capacities of the international insurance market

and without involving financial guarantees from the licensing state.

Subsequently, the Convention placed the liability limit much higher than the

Paris Convention and the later Vienna Convention, to 1,500 million (Poincaré) francs

(approximately $ 100 million). At the time of the Convention’s adoption and even for

a decade after it

the limit was considered in excess of total coverage available in the

existing insurance markets.

Regarding the congruence between operator liability and his obligation to maintain

insurance or other financial security, NS Convention, Article III (2) provides, that

“the operator shall be required to maintain insurance, or other financial security covering

his liability for nuclear damage, in such amount, of such type and in such terms as the

licensing State shall specify. The licensing State shall ensure the payment of claims for

compensation for nuclear damage established against the operator by providing the

necessary funds up to the limit laid down in paragraph 1 of this Article to the extent that

the yield of the insurance or the financial security is inadequate to satisfy such claims.”

This

provision means the Convention left both the amount and the quality of coverage to

International Convention Relating to the Limitation of the Liability of Owners of Sea-Going Vessels,

of 10 October 1957.

Concerning the currency used in the Convention, Article III (4) provided, that

“the franc mentioned

in paragraph 1 of this Article is a unit of account constituted by sixty-five and one half milligrams of gold

of millesimal fineness nine hundred. The amount awarded may be converted into each national currency in

round figures. Conversion into national currencies other than gold shall be effected on the basis of their gold

value at the date of payment.”

Op. cit.

sub note 11, at p. 102.

Op. cit.

sub note 11, at p. 103, and special in notes 15, 17 and 18.

Op. cit.

sub note 4, at p. 556.