An examination of the inadequacy of the wording of the damage claim provisions of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, resulting in interpretative legal difficulties as revealed by claims stemming from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The United States Oil Pollution Act 1990 (OPA), contains a provision, s1002(b) (2), that sets out six categories or kinds of damage that may be recovered from a ‘responsible party’ liable for losses resulting from damage caused by the discharge of oil in United States (US) waters. The provision was drafted with the purpose of facilitating a predictable and just outcome for claimants against such a responsible party. The central argument of this dissertation is that the intended purpose is undermined by difficulties in interpreting certain of these provisions, and that, if these provisions are to achieve their objective, they require legislative amendment and that such reform is urgent. The BP Spill highlighted the issue of the lack of clarity in the claims provisions of the OPA as well as revealing the potentially catastrophic and widespread effect that a spill of this magnitude can have.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Shipping Law Unit

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Bradley, Martha Magdalena

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bradfield, Graham

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12857

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12857