Transport of nuclear material under the 1971 Brussels Convention

The legal regime in force before entry into force of the 1971 Brussels Convention relating to civil liability for the maritime carriage of nuclear material created serious difficulties for maritime carriers, regarding both the financial risks entailed and restrictions on enjoyment of the rights granted by civil liability conventions. The 1971 Convention exonerates from liability any person likely to be held liable for nuclear damage under maritime law, provided another person is liable under the nuclear conventions or an equivalent national law. A problem remaining is that of compensation of nuclear damage to the means of transport for countries not having opted for re-inclusion of such damage in the nuclear law regime; this does not apply however to countries having ratified the Convention to date. A feature of the latter is that it establishes as extensively as possible the priority of nuclear law over maritime law. Furthermore the new regime continues to preserve efficiently the interests of victims of nuclear incidents. It is therefore to be hoped that insurers will no longer hesitate to cover international maritime carriage of nuclear material