On the transformation of the ICRP radiation protection principles into international and national law

The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), founded in 1928 as a Committee of the International Congress of Radiology, is the competent and responsible international body for the elaboration and publishing of recommendations in the field of radiation protection in all its different aspects. Because ICRP is not an International Governmental Organisation (IGO), but a private corporation (Non-Governmental Organisation, (NGO), it is not able to enact legally binding provisions and standards. In respect of an effective radiation protection it is therefore necessary to transform those ICRP-recommendations into international agreements or decisions of international governmental organisations as well as into national law in the form of acts, decrees, regulations, guidelines, codes of practice, standards, quality assurance programs etc. as an obligation of public international law. The paper gives a survey on the present state of transformation of the ICRP recommendations into international law and into national law concerning the general principles of radiation protection, which has been recommended by ICRP in its publication no. 26 (1977) (justification, optimization). Finally, some legal problems in connection with the transformation of the radiation protection general principles into international and national law are discussed. (author)