OPA 1990의 財政責任問題에 관한 批判的 考察
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초록
This paper focuses on the issues of financial responsibility of the Oil Pollution Act(OPA 1990) of 1990 because they have not been clearly solved even though it has passed more than 10 years since it was enacted. They are as follows：first, the possibility of unlimited horizontal liability., second, the possibility of unlimited direct action and last, the issue of P & I Clubs acting as guarantors. The first issue is presented since it is possible that individual State statutes in the US could repeatedly make a P & I Club expose to liability for the same accident, i.e. that the P & I limit will be construed as a separate limit by each individual State. But it can be solved by 33 CFR§138.80(d)(2) which provides that 'in the event of any finding that liability of guarantor exceeds the amount of guaranty ... that guaranty is considered null and void with respect to that excess.' An opinion was presented that the second issue could be solved by narrowly restricting the direct claim actions both procedurally and substantively, that is, only after certain conditions are met, and only in one forum. The third issue was solved by the participation of alternative commercial insurance companies acting as guarantors. However, OPA 1990 and the financial responsibility issues are still heavily criticized not only by P & I Clubs but by the shipping and oil industry in that their legal and economic implications have not been solved clearly until now. So. the core rules of OPA 1990 should be stipulated more clearly.