CYIL vol. 14 (2023)

VASILKA SANCIN

CYIL 14 (2023)

and adds in Article 2(5), “5. This Convention shall not apply to nuclear material used or retained for military purposes or to a nuclear facility containing such material.” This showcases that contemporary international legal developments on nuclear matters are capable of providing more precise guidance on interlinkages among various parts of international law and may be relevant for the purposes of dynamic systematic interpretation of the VCCLND. 3. The Exonerations from Liability under the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage in Sitautions of Armed Conflicts The international legal regime of nuclear liability, as established by the VCCLND, is based on the concept of the civil liability of a private entity, rather than on the concept of State liability/responsibility. 53 For the purposes of this article it is however important to note that issues of liability/responsibility of individuals and States are not necessarily completely unrelated, which is even more pertinent for damage caused in situations of armed conflicts. It needs to be mentioned that in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, 54 the majority of States 55 participate in the VCCLND, while only a handful of States 56 participate in the regime amended by the Protocol to Amend the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage 57 – the VCCLND and the Protocol are to be read and applied together as a single text and may be referred to as the “1997 Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage”- since several of those States who signed the Protocol have not yet ratified it. 58 Furthermore, the liability and compensation regime of the VCCLND has never been operationalized so far, as there have, very fortunately, been no actual cases of nuclear incidents that were covered by the scheme of the VCCLND. 59 The VCCLND established a civil liability regime, which operates under domestic law (in case of Zaporizhzhia, law of Ukraine), allowing eligible victims of nuclear damage to claim compensation in the courts of a Contracting Party in whose territory a nuclear incident 53 See CIGOJ, S. International regulation of civil liability for nuclear risk (1965) 14 International & Comparative Law Quarterly , pp. 809-821 and LEE, M. ‘Civil liability of nuclear industry’ (2000) 12 Journal of Environmental Law, pp. 317–332. 54 However, major nuclear States, such as the United States, Canada, South Africa, China, Japan, and India, are not parties to this convention. 55 Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Russian Federation, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria etc. 56 Belarus, Poland, and Romania. 57 The Protocol to Amend the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (adopted 12 September 1997, entered into force 4 October 2003), INFCIRC/566. 58 Hungary, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Ukraine. See HANDRLICA, J. ‘The Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage: 60 Years of a Quest for a Nuclear Liability Framework, Czech Yearbook of International Public and Privat Law , 2023, pp. 297–313. 59 See HANDRLICA, J. Black swans, dragon kings and the uncertainty in international nuclear law (2021) 14 Journal of World Energy Law & Business , pp. 25–37. 3.1 The Vienna nuclear liability regime’s applicability in situations of armed conflicts

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