CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF SUBMARINE CABLES, 1884

CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF SUBMARINE CABLES, 1884 Whole document
APPLICATION Article 1 The present Convention shall be applicable, outside the territorial waters, to all legally established submarine cables landed in the territories, colonies or possessions of one or more of the High Contracting Parties. INJURY TO CABLES TO BE PUNISHABLE Article 2 The breaking or injury of a submarine cable, done wilfully or through culpable negligence, and resulting in the total or partial interruption or embarrassment of telegraphic communication, shall be a punishable offence, but the punishment inflicted shall be no bar to a civil action for damages.

This provision shall not apply to ruptures or injuries when the parties guilty thereof have become so simply with the legitimate object of saving their lives or their vessels, after having taken all necessary precautions to avoid such ruptures or injuries.

Article 3 The High Contracting Parties agree to insist, as far as possible, when they shall authorise the landing of a submarine cable, upon suitable conditions of safety, both as regards the track of the cable and its dimensions.

Article 4 The owner of a cable who, by the laying or repairing of that cable, shall cause the breaking or injury of another cable, shall be required to pay the cost of the repairs which such breaking or injury shall have rendered necessary, but such payment shall not bar the enforcement, if there be ground therefor, of Article 2 of this Convention.

Article 5 Vessels engaged in laying or repairing submarine cables must observe the rules concerning signals that have been or shall be adopted, by common consent, by the High Contracting Parties, with a view to preventing collisions at sea.

When a vessel engaged in repairing a cable carries the said signals, other vessels that see or are able to see those signals shall withdraw or keep at a distance of at least one nautical mile from such vessel, in order not to interfere with its operations.

Fishing gear and nets shall be kept at the same distance.

Nevertheless, a period of twenty-four hours at most shall be allowed to fishing vessels that perceive or are able to perceive a telegraph ship carrying the said signals, in order that they may be enabled to obey the notice thus given, and no obstacle shall be placed in the way of their operations during such period.

The operations of telegraph ships shall be finished as speedily as possible.

Article 6 Vessels that see or are able to see buoys designed to show the position of cables when the latter are being laid, are out of order, or are broken, shall keep at a distance of one quarter of a nautical mile at least from such buoys.

Fishing nets and gear shall be kept at the same distance.

LOSSES ON ACCOUNT OF CABLES Article 7 Owners of ships or vessels who can prove that they have sacrificed an anchor, a net, or any other implement used in fishing, in order to avoid injuring a submarine cable, shall be indemnified by the owner of the cable.

In order to be entitled to such indemnity, one must prepare, whenever possible, immediately after the accident, in proof thereof, a statement supported by the testimony of the men belonging to the crew; and the captain of the vessel must, within twenty-four hours after arriving at the first port of temporary entry, make his declaration to the competent authorities. The latter shall give notice thereof to the consular authorities of the nation to which the owner of the cable belongs.

COURT OF COUNTRY OF INFRACTING PARTY TO HAVE JURISDICTION Article 8 The courts competent to take cognisance of infractions of this Convention shall be those of the country to which the vessel on board of which the infraction has been committed belongs.

It is, moreover, understood that, in cases in which the provision contained in the foregoing paragraph cannot be carried out, the repression of violations of this Convention shall take place, in each of the Contracting States, in the case of its subjects or citizens in accordance with the general rules of penal competence established by the special laws of those states, or by international treaties.

PROSECUTION TO BE IN NAME OF STATE Article 9 Prosecutions on account of the infractions contemplated in Article 2, 5 and 6 of this Convention, shall be instituted by the state or in its name.

Article 10 Evidence of violations of this Convention may be obtained by all methods of securing proof that are allowed by the laws of the country of the court before which a case has been brought.

When the officers commanding the vessels of war or the vessels specially commissioned for that purpose of one of the High Contracting Parties, shall have reason to believe that an infraction of the measures provided for by this Convention has been committed by a vessel other than a vessel of war, they may require the Captain or Master to exhibit the official documents furnishing evidence of the nationality of the said vessel. Summary mention of such exhibition shall at once be made on the documents exhibited.

Reports may, moreover be prepared by the said officers, whatever may be the nationality of the inculpated vessel. These reports shall be drawn up in the form and in the language in use in the country to which the officer drawing them up belongs; they may be used as evidence in the country in which they shall be invoked, and according to the laws of such country. The accused parties and the witnesses shall have the right to add or to cause to be added thereto, in their own language, any explanations that they may deem proper; these declarations shall be duly signed.

Article 11 Proceedings and trial in cases of infractions of the provisions of this Convention shall always take place as summarily as the laws and regulations in force will permit.

Article 12 The High Contracting Parties engage to take or to propose to their respective legislative bodies the measures necessary in order to secure the execution of this Convention, and especially in order to cause the punishment, either by fine or imprisonment, or both, of such persons as may violate the provisions of Articles 2, 5 and 6.

Note: The U.S. statutes are collected in the U.S. Code, Title 47, ch, 2, sections 21 INTERCHANGE OF LAWS Article 13 The High Contracting Parties shall communicate to each other such laws as may already have been or as may hereafter be enacted in their respective countries, relative to the subject of this Convention.

OTHER STATES MAY ADHERE Article 14 States that have not taken part in this Convention shall be allowed to adhere thereto, on their requesting to do so. Notice of such adhesion shall be given, diplomatically, to the Government of the French Republic, and by the latter to the other signatory Governments.

NOT TO AFFECT BELLIGERENTS Article 15 It is understood that the stipulations of this Convention shall in no wise affect the liberty of action of belligerents.

COMMENCEMENT AND TERMINATION Article 16 This Convention shall take effect on such day as shall be agreed upon by the High Contracting Parties.

It shall remain in force for five years from that day, and, in case none of the High Contracting Parties shall have given notice, twelve months previously to the expiration of the said period of five years, of its intention to cause its effects to cease, it shall continue in force for one year, and so on from year to year.

In case one of the Signatory Powers shall give notice of its desire for the cessation of the effects of the Convention, such notice shall be effective as regards the Power only.

RATIFICATION Article 17 This Convention shall be ratified; its ratification shall be exchanged at Paris as speedily as possible, and within one year at the latest.

In testimony whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed it, and have thereunto affixed their seals.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLE The stipulations of the Convention concluded this day for the protection of submarine cables shall be applicable, according to Article 1, to the colonies and possessions of Her Britannic Majesty with the exception of the following, to wit: Canada, Newfoundland, The Cape, Natal, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia, West Australia, New Zealand.

Nevertheless, the stipulations of the said Convention shall be applicable to one of the above-named colonies or possessions, if, in its name, a notification to that effect has been addressed by the representative of Her Britannic Majesty at Paris to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France. COLONIES MAY ADHERE Each of the above-named colonies or possessions that shall have adhered to the said Convention, shall have the privilege of withdrawing in the same manner as the contracting powers. In case one of the colonies or possessions in question shall desire to withdraw from the Convention, a notification to that effect shall be addressed by Her Britannic Majesty's representative at Paris to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France.