The BP Oil Spill: A Case Study
American Society of International Law - The Ritz-Carlton
International Law and the Liability for Catastrophic Environmental DamageTransboundary pollution from catastrophic events, such as the Deepwater Horizon/BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, raises questions of how to determine liability and responsibility for clean-up, compensation, and restoration. Answers to these questions implicate both national and international law. This panel will address how international law has been, or could be, brought to bear in environmental catastrophes by looking at both successes and failures.Moderator:MARIE SOVEROSKIASIL International Environmental Law Interest Group ChairSpeakers:JUDGE TULLIO TREVESInternational Tribunal for the Law of the SeaALAN BOYLEEdinburgh UniversityPETER SANDUniversity of MunichMONIKA HINTEREGGERUniversity of GrazGUNTHER HANDLTulane University School of LawInternational law, and the world in which it operates, are increasingly both harmonious and dissonant. The Society’s Annual Meeting in 2011 will focus on the evolution of international law in the context of this paradox.The paradox of simultaneous segmentation and seamlessness raises important questions. Most broadly, when should international law be segmented, and when should it be seamless? What are the mechanisms for deciding this question, and what are the values that inform those decisions? What do these trends say about international law as a coherent system? To what extent are certain groups and their viewpoints excluded or ignored? What does this say about who the influential players within the international legal system are, and how that influence is exercised? What does the existence of competing conceptions of international law itself mean for ASIL's constituents, including judges deciding international issues, practitioners seeking to persuade courts and craft international policy, and scholars seeking to understand and propose solutions to global problems?Society members are uniquely positioned to tackle these questions with their diverse perspectives, experiences, and areas of expertise, and their unifying commitment to investigating the limits and possibilities of international law. We look forward to an exciting and dynamic meeting that will examine such trends, and their implications for international law and legal institutions in the 21st century.
