39 
5. Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear 
Weapons, and other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Seabed and 
Ocean Floor and on the Subsoil Thereof, 1971. 
in addition to the above treaties and conventions, the International 
Atomic Energy Agency has periodically issued guidelines and regula- 
tions, in accordance with a resolution of the 1958 Law of the Sea 
Conference for the safe disposal of radioactive wastes into the sea. 
There is no international control on such waste disposal. Individual 
states are only obligated to control discharge from their own facilities. 
However, because of early public concern toward radioactive pollution, 
disposal of wastes from nuclear reactors is perhaps one of the best 
controlled and managed disposal systems now existing. 
Intervention Convention of 1969 
The TYorrey Canyon disaster prompted two 1969 Brussels conven- 
tions dealing entirely with oil pollution from ships. The first of these, 
the International Convention relating to Intervention on the High 
Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Casualties, permits any party to take 
“such measures on the high seas as may be necessary to prevent, 
mitigate or eliminate grave and imminent danger to their coastline 
or related interests from pollution or threat of pollution of the sea by 
oil, following upon a maritime casualty or acts related to such a 
casualty, which may reasonably be expected to result in major harmful 
consequences.’ “* Measures taken by the coastal state ‘‘shall be 
proportionate to the damage actual or threatened to it.”’* This 
convention is preventive in allowing signatory states to resort to 
self-help in emergencies to protect their own interests from oil pollu- 
tion damage. The principle of self-help on the high seas is not new, 
but this is the first international convention to apply it to the purposes 
of protection of the marine environment. 
Liability Convention of 1969 
The second 1969 Brussels convention dealt with civil liability in 
the event of oil pollution damage. The International Convention on 
Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage established rules and pro- 
cedures for determining liability and providing compensation for 
damage caused by oil pollution from ships.** The Liability Convention 
applies only to the territory or territorial sea of the signatory states 
and does not extend liability to damage occurring within the contig- 
uous zone or on the high seas. Liability applies to the ship owner, not 
the charterer or cargo owner, and unlike the 1954 Oil Pollution Con- 
vention as amended, claims can be made in the courts of the damaged 
state. Liability, defined in Poincare francs, was at that time equivalent 
to a limit of $134 per ton or up to $14 million maximum. This Conven- 
tion is primarily remedial rather than preventive, applying only to oil 
pollution after 1t causes damage to a limited area of the ocean. 
TOVALOP and CRISTAL.—The Liability Convention has been 
supplemented by voluntary actions of two segments of private industry 
directly concerned with this matter, namely the tanker owners and 
the cargo owners. The Tanker Owners Voluntary Agreement concern- 
ing Liability for Oil Pollution (TOVALOP) is an international insur- 
44 International Convention Relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution 
Casualties, signed at Brussels November 29, 1969. art. 1. 
49 [bid., art. 5. 
a International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, signed at Brussels November 29, 
9. 
