CONVENTION RELATING TO CIVIL LIABILITY IN THE FIELD OF MARITIMECARRIAGE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL, 1971
CONVENTION RELATING TO CIVIL LIABILITY IN THE FIELD OF MARITIMECARRIAGE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL, 1971
Whole document
THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES,
CONSIDERING that the Paris Convention of July 29, 1960 on Third Party
Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy and its Additional Protocol of
January 28, 1964 (hereinafter referred to as "the Paris Convention") and
the Vienna Convention of May 21, 1963 on Civil Liability for Nuclear
Damage (hereinafter referred to as "the Vienna Convention") provide that,
in the case of damage caused by a nuclear incident occurring in the
course of maritime carriage of nuclear material covered by such
Conventions, the operator of a nuclear installation is the person liable
for such damage,
CONSIDERING that similar provisions exist in the national law in force
in certain States,
CONSIDERING that the application of any preceding international
Convention in the field of maritime transport is however maintained,
DESIROUS of ensuring that the operator of a nuclear installation will
be exclusively liable for damage caused by a nuclear incident occurring in
the course of maritime carriage of nuclear material,
HAVE AGREED as follows:
Article 1
Any person who by virtue of an international convention or national
law applicable in the field of maritime transport might be held liable for
damage caused by a nuclear incident shall be exonerated from such
liability:
(a) if the operator of a nuclear installation is liable for such
damage under either the Paris or the Vienna Convention, or
(b) if the operator of a nuclear installation is liable for such
damage by virtue of a national law governing the liability for such
damage, provided that such law is in all respects as favourable to persons
who may suffer damage as either the Paris or the Vienna Convention.
Article 2
1. The exoneration provided for in Article 1 shall also apply in
respect of damage caused by a nuclear incident:
(a) to the nuclear installation itself or to any property on the
site of that installation which is used or to be used in connexion with
that installation, or
(b) to the means of transport upon which the nuclear material
involved was at the time of the nuclear incident.
for which the operator of the nuclear installation is not liable
because his liability for such damage has been excluded pursuant to the
provisions of either the Paris or the Vienna Convention, or, in cases
referred to in Article 1(b), by equivalent provisions of the national law
referred to therein.
2. The provisions of paragraph 1 shall not, however, affect the
liability of any individual who has caused the damage by an act or
omission done with intent to cause damage.
Article 3
No provision of the present Convention shall affect the liability of
the operator of a nuclear ship in respect of damage caused by a nuclear
incident involving the nuclear fuel of or radioactive products or waste
produced in such ship.
Article 4
The present Convention shall supersede any international Conventions
in the field of maritime transport which, at the date on which the present
Convention is opened for signature, are in force or open for signature,
ratification or accession but only to the extent that such Conventions
would be in conflict with it, however, nothing in this Article shall
affect the obligations of the Contracting Parties to the present
Convention to non-Contracting States arising under such international
Conventions.
Article 5
1. The present Convention shall be opened for signature in Brussels
and shall remain open for signature in London at the Headquarters of the
Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (hereinafter
referred to as "the Organization") until December 31, 1972 and shall
thereafter remain open for accession.
2. States Members of the United Nations or any of the Specialized
Agencies or of the International Atomic Energy Agency or Parties to the
Statute of the International Court of Justice may become Parties to the
present Convention by;
(a) signature without reservation as to ratification, acceptance
or approval;
(b) signature subject to ratification, acceptance or approval
followed by ratification, acceptance or approval; or
(c) accession.
3. Ratification, acceptance, approval or accession shall be effected
by the deposit of a formal instrument to that effect with the
Secretary-General of the Organization.
Article 6
1. The present Convention shall enter into force on the ninetieth day
following the date on which five States have either signed it without
reservation as to ratification, acceptance or approval or have deposited
instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the
Secretary-General of the Organization.
2. For any State which subsequently signs the present Convention
without reservation as to ratification, acceptance or approval, or
deposits its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or
accession, the Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day after
the date of such signature or deposit.
Article 7
1. The present Convention may be denounced by any Contracting Party to
it at any time after the date on which the Convention comes into force for
that State.
2. Denunciation shall be effected by a notification in writing
delivered to the Secretary-General of the Organization.
3. A denunciation shall take effect one year, or such longer period as
may be specified in the notification, after its receipt by the
Secretary-General of the Organization.
4. Notwithstanding a denunciation by a Contracting Party pursuant to
this Article the provisions of the present Convention shall continue to
apply to any damage caused by a nuclear incident occurring before the
denunciation takes effect.
Article 8
1. The United Nations where it is the administering authority for a
territory, or any Contracting Party to the present Convention responsible
for the international relations of a territory, may at any time by
notification in writing to the Secretary-General of the Organization
declare that the present Convention shall, extend to such territory.
2. The present Convention shall from the date of receipt of the
notification or from such other date as may be specified in the
notification, extend to the territory named therein.
3. The United Nations or any Contracting Party which had made a
declaration under paragraph 1 of this Article may at any time after the
date on which the Convention has been so extended to any territory declare
by notification in writing to the Secretary-General of the Organization
that the present Convention shall cease to extend to any such territory
named in the notification.
4. The present Convention shall cease to extend to any territory
mentioned in such notification one year, or such longer period as may be
specified therein, after the date of receipt of the notification by the
Secretary-General of the Organization.
Article 9
1. A Conference for the purpose of revising or amending the present
Convention may be convened by the Organization.
2. The Organization shall convene a Conference of the Contracting
Parties to the present Convention for revising or amending it at the
request of not less than one-third of the Contracting Parties.
Article 10
A Contracting Party may make reservations corresponding to those which
it has validly made to the Paris or Vienna Convention. A reservation may
be made at the time of signature, ratification, acceptance, approval or
accession.
Article 11
1. The present Convention shall be deposited with the
Secretary-General of the Organization.
2. The Secretary-General of the Organization shall:
(a) inform all States which have signed or acceded to the present
Convention of:
(i) each new signature and each deposit of an instrument
together with the date thereof;
(ii) any reservation made in conformity with the present
Convention;
(iii) the date of entry into force of the present Convention;
(iv) any denunciation of the present Convention and the date
on which it takes effect;
(v) the extension of the present Convention to any territory
under paragraph 1 of Article 8 and of the termination of any such
extension under the provisions of paragraph 4 of that Article stating in
each case the date on which the present Convention has been or will cease
to be so extended;
(b) transmit certified true copies of the present Convention to
all Signatory States and to all States which have acceded to the present
Convention.
3. As soon as the present Convention comes into force, a certified
true copy thereof shall be transmitted by the Secretary-General of the
Organization to the Secretariat of the United Nations for registration and
publication in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United
Nations.
Article 12
The present Convention is established in a single original in the
English and French languages, both texts being equally authentic.
Official translations in the Russian and Spanish languages shall be
prepared by the Secretariat of the Organization and deposited with the
signed original.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned being duly authorized by their
respective Governments for that purpose have signed the present
Convention.
DONE at Brussels this seventeenth day of December 1971.
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