Right of recourse to Foreign Countries

Right of recourse to foreign countries

The accident insurance institutions have the right to claim compensation (recourse) for granted benefits of those who have caused the damage or their insurers by legally transferring the claims for damages to them. As a rule, damage or recourse can also be claimed if the insured person has suffered a damage (or if the damage was caused on the national territory by a person residing in a foreign country).


Especially in the case of damages caused in a foreign country, the damage claim principles prevailing in the particular country, that often differ from the national handling, have to be observed which then impedes the enforcement of claims (e.g. low maximum damage claims, short periods of application and prescription, refusal to accept the legal transfer of claims for damages).





Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC)

Over the past two decades, the international community has taken a number of actions to foster the use of nuclear power in a safe and secure manner. One of the most important actions was adoption of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC) to serve as the basis for a global nuclear liability regime. Such a regime is vital to promoting international cooperation in designing, constructing and operating nuclear power plants and in ensuring the safety and security of these plants.

The CSC achieves legal certainty by requiring each member country to have national law on nuclear liability that is based on the Paris Convention,3 the Vienna Convention4 or the Annex to the CSC56 and that incorporates the provisions in the CSC on jurisdiction, compensation and the definition of nuclear damage.

The CSC reaffirms the principle that jurisdiction over a nuclear incident lies only with the courts of the country where the incident occurs. The CSC assures the availability of a meaningful amount of compensation for nuclear damage in member countries by providing for two tiers of compensation. The CSC assures meaningful compensation for nuclear damage promptly with a minimum of litigation.

Both generating States and non-generating States have a strong interest in assuring that, in the unlikely event of a nuclear incident, their citizens receive meaningful compensation for nuclear damage promptly with a minimum of litigation and other burdens. The CSC has been developed specifically to achieve this objective.

Establishment of a global nuclear liability regime based on the CSC is essential to fully realising the potential benefits from nuclear power with respect to economic development, living standards, energy prices and supplies, and the environment. Since the adoption of the CSC in 1997, considerable effort has been expended to provide a better understanding of the CSC and to clarify how its provisions operate to establish a legal framework that achieves the complementary objectives of facilitating commercial development of nuclear power and assuring, in the unlikely event of a nuclear incident, the prompt availability of meaningful compensation with a minimum of litigation and other burdens. This effort has provided a sound basis on which both generating States and non-generating States can now give serious consideration to adhering to the CSC and thereby establish a global nuclear liability regime.