Challenges facing the insurance industry since the modernisation of the international nuclear third party liability regime

Abstract

The modernisation of international conventions governing third-party liability in the nuclear field is essentially an attempt to resolve certain shortcomings whilst setting out higher compensation sums and extending the cover for nuclear damage for which compensation is payable. The latest convention revisions occurred in 2004 and led to the adoption of protocols amending the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy1 and the Brussels Convention supplementing the Paris Convention.2 However, the substance of the current regimes is largely the result of conventions drawn up in the 1960s and, in the eyes of the general public, the changes made in 2004 are mainly concerned with increasing the compensation sums.