Federal Act
on Private International Law
(PILA)

¹ Jur­is­dic­tion to hear ac­tions re­lat­ing to nuc­le­ar in­cid­ents is gov­erned by the Con­ven­tion of 29 Ju­ly 1960⁷⁸ on Third Party Li­ab­il­ity in the Field of Nuc­le­ar En­ergy as amended by the Ad­di­tion­al Pro­tocol of 28 Janu­ary 1964, the Pro­tocol of 16 Novem­ber 1982 and the Pro­tocol of 12 Feb­ru­ary 2004 (the Par­is Con­ven­tion).

² If the Swiss courts have jur­is­dic­tion un­der this Con­ven­tion, the ac­tion shall be brought in the can­ton in whose ter­rit­ory the in­cid­ent oc­curred, or, where the place of the in­cid­ent lies out­side the sov­er­eign ter­rit­ory of the con­tract­ing parties or can­not be de­term­ined with cer­tainty, in the can­ton in whose ter­rit­ory the nuc­le­ar in­stall­a­tion of the op­er­at­or li­able is loc­ated. If sev­er­al courts have jur­is­dic­tion in ac­cord­ance with these rules, the ac­tion shall be brought in the can­ton that in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 13 para­graph (f) num­ber (ii) of the Con­ven­tion is most closely re­lated to the in­cid­ent and is the most af­fected by its ef­fects.

³ The rules on jur­is­dic­tion in para­graph 2 also ap­ply by ana­logy to ac­tions arising from nuc­le­ar in­cid­ents to which the Con­ven­tion does not ap­ply. If in the case of such an ac­tion, neither the place of the in­cid­ent nor that of the nuc­le­ar in­stall­a­tion lies in Switzer­land, the ac­tion may also be filed in the can­ton in whose ter­rit­ory the al­leged dam­age oc­curred. If dam­age oc­curred in two or more can­tons, the can­ton that is most af­fected by the in­cid­ent shall have jur­is­dic­tion.⁷⁹