vention. If the Government so informed is satisfied 

 that sufficient evidence is available in the form 

 required by its law to enable proceedings against 

 the owner or master of the ship to be taken in 

 respect of the alleged contravention, it shall cause 

 such proceedings to be taken as soon as possible, 

 and shall inform the other Government and 

 [IMCO] of the result of such proceedings. 



B. Framework Applicable to Oil Pollution' ^ 



In evaluating the framework applicable to oil 

 pollution, the routine oil spill, i.e., the discharge 

 of oil into the sea that occurs as a result of 

 ordinary ship operation, must be distinguished 

 from the massive oil spill, i.e., the discharge of oil 

 into the sea as the result of accidents to ships 

 occasioned by collisions, foundering and stranding. 



IV. TENTATIVE EVALUATION OF EXISTING 

 FRAMEWORK 



A. Framework Applicable to Nuclear Pollution 



At present, there is no effective international 

 regulation of the disposal of radioactive wastes 

 into the sea. There is no international agreement 

 on the conditions under which radioactive waste 

 may be safely disposed into the sea. There is no 

 central register recording information on the 

 nature and amount of radioactive waste being 

 released into the sea. No international agency has 

 been entrusted with responsibility for surveying 

 and monitoring the presence of radioactive sub- 

 stances in the sea and marine products. 



The responsibility to prevent harmful radio- 

 active contamination rests entirely with individual 

 nations, assisted in their efforts-when they desire 

 assistance— by IAEA. 



Even if it is assumed that the coastal States are 

 authorized by general principles of international 

 law, or Part II of the Convention on the Tenitorial 

 Sea and the Contiguous Zone, unilaterally to 

 prohibit the disposal of radioactive wastes in a 

 contiguous area, this power is insufficient to 

 handle the problem because it is most improbable 

 that any nation will attempt to dispose of radio- 

 active wastes in areas within the 12-mile limit of 

 any coastal State. 



Finally, even if each nation surrounds its own 

 radioactive waste disposal practices with adequate 

 safeguards from its own point of view, the 

 cumulative impact of such practices, foUowed by 

 each nation without regard for the practices of all 

 other nations, may endanger future uses of the 

 oceans. Article 25 of the Convention on the High 

 Seas merely admonishes the States to cooperate in 

 handling the nuclear pollution problem. 



1. The Routine Oil Spill 



a. General A number of factors cause this dis- 

 charge of oil into the sea: 



(0 Ballasting Ships empty of cargo Ue too 

 high in the water and become very susceptible to 

 the movements occasioned by high wind and 

 rough sea. Sea water or harbor water, therefore, is 

 pumped into tanks of ships to enable them to 

 achieve depth at sea and become more stable and 

 amenable to navigational control. Dry cargo or 

 passenger ships which do not have separate ballast- 

 ing tanks, which are expensive, usually receive the 

 ballasting water into their fuel tanks. Tankers 

 receive their ballasting water into the same tanks 

 which carry their cargo. 



Unless the tanks are cleaned before receiving 

 the ballast water, the mixture of the ballast water 

 with the oil residue creates waste oil emulsion 

 which is the pollutant. The oily water must be 

 discharged before the tankers take on their new 

 cargo or the other ships are refueled. 



The problem might be solved by requiring the 

 tanks that will receive the ballast water to be 

 cleaned at the port at which the cargo is unloaded 

 and the wastes discharged into a waste oil facility, 

 but this alternative is apparently very expensive.* ' 

 Instead, the oily water may be discharged into the 

 sea outside the prohibited zones. If the ships are 

 readied for new cargo within a prohibited zone, or 



This section of the panel report is based upon a 

 paper entitled International Regulation of Oil Pollution 

 prepared for the panel by Professor Thomas A. Clingan, 

 Jr., Professor of Law, The George Washington University 

 and Richard Springer, a student at the Harvard Law 

 School, to whom the panel expresses its thanks. 



I n 



See generally. Moss, Character and Control of Sea 

 Pollution by Oil 45-46 (American Petroleum Institute, 

 1963; Moss, A Comnfunication from the American 

 Petroleum Institute to the Chairman of the United States 

 National Committee for Prevention of Pollution of the 

 Seas by Oil 4 (1961). 



VIU-84 



