The US Oil Pollution Act, 1990 : a unilateral act in international environmental law

Abstract

During the last 30 years the oil pollution of the seas and other navigable waters has been the cause of much international concern. A significant amount of this pollution is caused by shipping and other maritime activities. The most notorious pollutant in tonnage terms has been oil, and more specifically the accidents caused by tankers carrying this oil as fuel or as cargo. This attention on oil pollution has been brought about due to wide media coverage, which has lead to public concern and ultimately political pressure. In fact oil pollution is in reality only a small percentage of marine pollution. It has been said that only some 20% of thetotal of marine pollution is caused by oil.There are other substances that pollute the seas and oceans and these are chemicals which are more dangerous than oil can ever be. Pollution from vessels can be caused in two ways: operational discharge and accidental discharge. The former and most common form of oil pollution occurs when the oil is being loaded or discharged and during the cleaning of cargo residues. According to the statistics oflntertanko as much as 92% of spills occur in this way. The more notorious are the accidental discharges which result from collisions with other vessels or reefs. The latter are the more high profile forms of oil pollution that attract great publicity due to the consequences of certain large spills which blacken miles and miles of ecological surroundings. The Torrey Canyon, Exxon Valdez and Amoco Cadiz disasters are but examples that show the great impact that a spill of such magnitude may have on politicians and in tum on legislation both international and national. Man is increasingly dependant on energy, and most countries are therefore dependant on the carriage of oil by sea. Although we accept that energy is a necessity there is also an increasing awareness of the priceless value of nature and our environment. We need both nature and energy to live since both are of paramount importance. Hence, a balance should be kept betweenthe various interests of the persons concerned, the shipping industry, the oil industry, the consumer, the citizens of those coastal states effected and also mankind as a whole. The abundance of conventions and their continued proliferation is a sign that the eradication of oil pollution continues to be of great interest on an international level. Prevention is probably the most ideal way of combating pollution yet pollution accidents are inevitable and thus liability and compensation play a very important part in the framing of legislation. Although we are all aware-of this problem of the interdependence of environmental issues an additional problem international legislators must deal with is coastal states and their rights. This is an extremely important aspect of the regulation since marine pollution is detrimental and concerns coastal states which depend very much on their marine environment for many reasons economic and others. A coastal states' jurisdiction to regulate vessels depends on the sovereign rights it has over maritime zones contiguous to its coasts. This is where the importance of The United States Oil PollutionAct of 19903 comes into play. OP A is indeed a unilateral act in international law, it is a domestic piece of legislation which regulates its own severe standards in areas considered of international domain. In an attempt to give an all round picture of OP A and the background in which it was created, the first three chapters will be dealing with the international arena : Chapter 1 will deal with the coastal states and the territorial limits wherein they can legislate to freely or limitedly, Chapter 2, the liability and compensation regime, and Chapter 3 illustrates other conventions dealing with prevention, safety and seafarer standards. Chapter four will deal with the US legal regime from its early days and its participation in the internationalsystem to OP A. The following chapters will deal with OP A'90, its main provisions and certain controversial issues that have made it so notorious in the world of oil transportation and shipping. The inadequacies of both regimes will be pointed out and contrasted. The ultimate solution provided is that shipping and the environment are intrinsically international subjects and therefore no matter how positive national intentions may be and what form domestic legislation may take legislation will only achieve the ideal goal if it is global.