Abstract: The environmental damage in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), as a result of the US nuclear testing legacy, is the“cruelest”environmental injustice in world history, but its tragic suffering was only gradually known by the international community between 1980 and 1990. For decades since the struggle for independence started in the early 1980s, the government of the RMI and her people (hereinafter referred to as “Marshall Islands”) have almost exhausted all political and legal methods, both nationally and internationally, to claim against the United States for their damage. Although they have received some compensation, the total amount paid by the US is far from compensating the Marshall Islands for their actual loss. The procedures and methods used in Marshall Islands’ claims have important empirical value, but there are few studies on them in Chinese academic circles. Considering that Japan has implemented the plan to discharge nuclear contaminated water from Fukushima into the sea, which may affect the whole marine ecology and harm all mankind, it is necessary and urgent to discuss the theory and practice of international nuclear damage compensation claims. The Marshall Islands compensation case, which served as a reference case, revealed the main issues in international nuclear damage compensation claims, which could provide potentially harmed countries and people with some ideas on how to deal with Japan’s action of discharging contaminated water into the sea. 

Key Words: Marshall Islands, nuclear damage and liability, international claim, Fukushima contaminated water, state responsibility

Author: LUO Huanxin, an associate research fellow at CASS Institute of International Law;

Source: 5 (2023) Asia-Pacific Security and Maritime Affairs.