The Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig - 1485 Words

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig (April 20th 2010) situated near the Mississippi river delta in the Gulf of Mexico exploded sending over a period of 87 days 210 million U.S. gallons of crude oil onto the ocean’s surface as well as the coastlines of the Gulf states Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Alabama. The magnitude of this oil spill was so awesome it could be seen from space and unfortunately took the lives of 11 people. British Petroleum (BP) has been found under numerous sets of circumstances responsible for this disaster and the clean up although largely contained still continues to this day. Quantifying the B.P. Oil spill legally has posed some of the most challenging issues to court administration. The very magnitude of†¦show more content†¦Do we have the legal framework necessary to combat this unforeseen quagmire? It is impossible to predict the legal ramifications of this disaster in total. However this process will be governed by an identifiable p atchwork of laws and regulations. Understanding the function, development and enforcement of these laws and regulations is essential to answering these questions. At the core of oil spill liability three principles have been firmly established by The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) 1. OPA 90 is the American statute governing liability for oil spills; it’s worth noting that The Oil Pollution Act was established in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. 1. Strict liability Strict liability with respect to OPA 90 lightens the burdens normally shouldered by plaintiffs in a court preceding. It does this by assigning strict liability to the party responsible for the spill; their negligence does not have to be established by the court to assign liability. This concept makes the process much simpler. 2. Channeling of liability OPA 90 also uses â€Å"channeling† to define exactly who the responsible party is. By using this method we clearly define only a single responsible party. With respect to Deepwater Horizon, the holder of the drilling permit is BP therefore they are the responsible party. Again this makes for a much simpler process where it is not necessary for the courts to determine which party caused the spill. Liability limits The most