Strengthening of Nuclear Liability Demo

Supplementary Convention”). 71 Both the Paris and Brussels Supplementary Conventions are regional treaties, opened only for the Member States of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). On other hand, a majority of the “new” Member States are the Contracting Parties to the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage of 1963 (hereinafter the “Vienna Convention”). 72 This Convention was originally designed as a worldwide treaty under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). After the fall of the “iron curtain” , 73 the post-Communist States preferred to join the Vienna Convention rather than the Paris Convention. This was mainly due to lower a financial obligation arising from the Vienna system of nuclear third party liability, 74 but also due to the fact that they did not belong to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at that time and were, consequently, not eligible to join the Paris Convention. Nuclear liability conventions of the “second generation” The international nuclear liability regimes established by the Paris and Vienna Conventions retained most of their original features until the late 1980s. Victims in the Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention would receive benefits available under its provisions if a nuclear incident occurred in the territory of one of the Contracting Parties to this Convention. At the same time, victims in the Contracting Parties to the Vienna Convention were entitled to benefits under that Convention in the event a nuclear incident occurred within one of its Contracting Parties. 75 However, the Chernobyl accident (1986) triggered public concern about international civil liability and made lawmakers aware of considerable gaps existing in the international legal framework. Several consequences of the independent and separate co-existence of the two major international liability regimes were identified: Firstly, neither convention applied to damage suffered in 71 The Convention of 31 January 1963 Supplementary to the Paris Convention of 29 July 1960, as amended by the additional Protocol of 28 January 1964 and by the Protocol of 16 November 1982. The 1963 Convention and the 1964 Additional Protocol entered into force on 4 December 1974. The 1982 Protocol entered into force on 1 January 1988. 72 The Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage of 21 May 1963 entered into force on 12 November 1977. 73 The only East-European State being the Contracting Party to the Vienna Convention before 1989 was Yugoslavia. 74 LAMM, V. The Unification of Nuclear Liability Law within the EU Member States from the Viewpoint of a Party to the Vienna Convention, In PELZER, N. ed. Europäisches Atomhaftungsrecht im Umbruch , Baden-Baden : Nomos Verlag, 2010, p. 213 et seqq. 75 BUSEKIST, O. A Bridge between Two Conventions on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage: The Joint Protocol Relating to the Application of the Vienna Convention and the Paris Convention, Nuclear Law Bulletin , Paris, 43, 1989.

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