Description:

Lyndon Johnson
Washington DC, February 21, 1968
LBJ Defines Nuclear Boundaries at Sea in Incredible Executive Order! Large, Bold Signature!
DS

Executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson as President and Dean Rusk as Secretary of State, Washington, D.C., dated February 21, 1968. The document measures 19.25" x 12.5" and has been matted to the overall size of 21.25" x 15". With a small area of smudging to some text, else very fine with large, bold signatures.

In this directive, the President authorizes the delegates to fully represent the United States in negotiating and signing critical revisions to the 1924 International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to Bills of Lading, a foundational treaty in maritime commerce. These revisions included provisions that significantly increased carrier liability limits for lost or damaged cargo and for the first time explicitly excluded nuclear damage from the Convention's scope, reflecting the growing global concern over nuclear risk and liability.

The Brussels Conference of 1968 culminated in the adoption of the Visby Amendments, which updated the 1924 Hague Rules governing the shipment of goods by sea. These amendments modernized international standards in response to containerization, rising cargo values, and a need for uniform legal frameworks in transnational trade.

One of the most notable inclusions in the 1968 amendments was a clear exclusion of liability for nuclear damage. This provision, codified in Article 4 of the amended Convention, ensured that the Hague-Visby framework would not interfere with or duplicate the developing body of international nuclear liability law.

This decision reflected the growing global focus on nuclear risk in the late 1960s. In 1968, the world was on the cusp of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which opened for signature in July 1968. At the same time, civilian nuclear energy programs were expanding rapidly across Europe and North America, raising concerns over potential nuclear attacks, the maritime transportation of nuclear materials and the potential consequences of a maritime nuclear accident. The Brussels Conference thus reinforced the idea that specialized conventions, such as the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (1963), would have exclusive jurisdiction over such matters.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 21.25" x 15"
  • Medium: DS

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July 16, 2025 10:00 AM EDT
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University Archives

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