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JAKUB HANDRLICA
CYIL 4 ȍ2013Ȏ
University of Montpellier 1. Currently, he is teaching Administrative Law at the
Facullty of Law , Charles University in Prague. He is a member of the International
Nuclear Law Association and of its Working Group on Nuclear Liability and
Insurance. Further, he is member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal
of Nuclear Law and correspondent to the OECD Nuclear Law Bulletin. In the years
2011-2013, he was participating in the work of the Group of Experts, established by
the European Commission in order to identify Euratom’s competencies in the field
of nuclear third party liability.
1. Introduction
The European Union currently possesses exclusive competence as concerns
acceding to international treaties which govern matters of jurisdiction and judicial
co-operation. Consequently, the
European Union is basically competent to accede
to those international agreements
which contain special provisions regulating this
field.
2
However, there is a problem in relation to those international conventions that
do not allow
accession of the European Union,
3
which is also the case with all existing
international nuclear liability conventions.
4
It is a matter of fact that it would be difficult to re-open negotiations in order
to introduce a clause permitting ratification by the European Union. The way the
Union copes with the situation is that it
authorises
Member States to accede to an
international convention by a special decision.
5
Such
authorisation
was issued with regard to the ratification of the Protocol
to Amend the Paris Convention of 2004 by those Member States which are
Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention of 1960. And consequently, such a kind
of authorization is needed also with regard to the ratification of the Protocol to
Amend the Vienna Convention of 1997 by those Contracting Parties to it which
entered the European Union during the
“Eastern enlargement”
.
However, Poland ratified the Protocol to Amend the Vienna Convention on Civil
Liability for Nuclear Damage of 1997 on 21 September 2010, and, consequently, the
Protocol entered into force in this country on 21 December 2010. Poland did this
2
Eeckhoud, P.
External Relations of the European Union: Legal and Constitutional Foundations
, Oxford
University Press, Oxford, 2004, pp. 135
et seq.
3
E.g. the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage of 2001 (the
Bunkers Convention), International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in
Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea (the HNS Convention),
Protocol of 2003 to the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for
Oil Pollution Damage etc.
4
Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy of 1960, Vienna Convention
on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage of 1963, Joint Protocol relating to the Application of the Paris
and Vienna Convention of 1988, Convention on Supplementary Compensation of 1997, Protocol to
Amend the Vienna Convention of 1997, Protocol to Amend the Paris Convention of 2004.
5
There is a similar situation in the area of liability of ship owners (maritime liability). See Ringbom, H.:
EU Regulation 44/2001 and its Implications for the International Maritime Liability Conventions,
Journal of Maritime Law & Commerce
,Vol. 35, 2001, pp. 1
et seq.