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Navigational Safety in European Waters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2009

Aline De Bièvre
Affiliation:
(European Environmental Bureau)

Abstract

This paper, which was presented at a seminar sponsored jointly by the Institute with the Nautical Institute in London on 9 December 1982, seeks to identify the environmental and political pressures behind the international and regional efforts to regulate the safety of shipping in European waters. It examines the role of Port State control and vessel traffic management in safety and the prevention of pollution.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1983

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References

Coastal state intervention on the high seas in cases of oil pollution casualties is regulated by the (enforced) 1969 Brussels Convention. Pressures have been brought to bear upon IMO by the French Government in particular, in the wake of the Amoco Cadiz, to revise this Convention with a view to extending intervention rights for the purpose of improving pollution prevention, salvage and ship notification and reporting systems. Intervention rights in cases of marine pollution by noxious substances other than oil are regulated by a (not yet enforced) Protocol adopted in 1973.Google Scholar
For a more extensive exposé of the views of the European Environmental Bureau, see: De Bièvre, A., ‘Shipping and the European Environment’, The Journal of Navigation, vol. 35, no. 3 (September 1982), pp. 451459.Google Scholar
E.g. see Buckingham, L., ‘INSA sees inspections as means of illegal delay’, Lloyd's List, 25 October 1982. In its annual report, the International Shipowners’ Association, a major group of Eastern Bloc, Yugoslavian and Indian ship owners, accused the Paris Memorandum of attempting to restrict the activities of ship owners of socialist countries in the world freight market.Google Scholar
Recent international efforts to establish a ‘Code of Practice for Vessel Traffic Services Procedures’ have been coordinated by the International Association of Light-house Authorities (I.A.L.A.).Google Scholar
A start was made with the first European, cooperative project on shore-based maritime navigation aid systems, the so-called COST-301 project (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) last January.Google Scholar
For an excellent discussion of the ‘parallel’ jurisdiction of coastal and flag states, see Handl, G., ‘State liability for accidental transnational environmental damage by private persons’, The American Journal of International Law, vol. 74, no. 3 (July 1980), pp. 525565.Google Scholar
The establishment of a comprehensive, simple and all-inclusive regime for liability in respect of pollution damage has been an important aim of the current deliberations at IMO in regard to the revision of the 1969 Civil Liability Convention (CLC) and the preparation of a new Convention dealing with pollution accidents involving hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) other than oil.Google Scholar
I.e. within the context of the CLC revision and the drafting of a new HNS Convention.Google Scholar
By way of example, see: the definition of ‘Vessel Traffic Services’ in IALA's Draft Code of Practice; the identification by OCIMF of ‘higher risk sea areas’; and the 1973 Marine Pollution (Marpol) Convention's definition of ‘special areas’ (Regulation I (10) of Annex I).Google Scholar
See Regulation 13 C as well as Resolution 16 of the 1978 Tanker Safety and Pollution Prevention Conference.Google Scholar