The development of international conventions on nuclear damage compensation liability and where should China go?

Abstract

The research about establishing international nuclear damage liability legal regime never stops since the draft of the Paris Convention. The current international nuclear damage liability regime can be seen as two branches: the Paris Convention system and the Vienna Convention system. In spite of the similarity between the Paris and Vienna Conventions, their existences do not provide a uniform liability regime for all countries which are parties to either convention. Thus, there is a necessity to build a bridge between the two systems. Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage establishes a worldwide liability regime attracting more countries. Compared with the previous two systems, Convention on Supplementary Compensation is more open and tolerant, supplement and enhance kinds of measures to increase the amount of compensation for nuclear damage, and is also the most frontier international convention of nuclear damage liability. Becoming a party of this Convention with the USA and Japan, China can not only enjoy the benefits from the Convention, but also be pushed to establish and perfect our own nuclear liability legal system and merges into international regime. In order to join this Convention, China must make full preparations, establish nuclear damage liability legislation, increase the compensation amount of the operators and the supplement compensation of government, and strengthen the ability of managing nuclear damage accidents of the operators and national government.