“Deepwater Horizon”. Economic loss claims from US offshore moratorium dismissed.

On March 10, 2016, Judge Carl Barbier ruled that economic loss claims resulting from the moratorium on offshore drilling imposed by the US government after the ‘Deepwater Horizon’ blowout in 2010 cannot be brought against BP , as the responsible party under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA”), 33 U.S.C. § 2702(a). The losses resulted from the perceived threat of discharge from other wells, rather than from discharge or the substantial threat of discharge from the Macondo well.

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Professor Simon Baughen

Professor Simon Baughen was appointed as Professor of Shipping Law in September 2013 (previously Reader at the University of Bristol Law School). Simon Baughen studied law at Oxford and practised in maritime law for several years before joining academia. His research interests lie mainly in the field of shipping law, but also include the law of trusts and the environmental law implications of the activities of multinational corporations in the developing world. Simon's book on Shipping Law, has run to seven editions (soon to be eight) and is already well-known to academics and students alike as by far the most learned and approachable work on the subject. Furthermore, he is now the author of the very well-established practitioner's work Summerskill on Laytime. He has an extensive list of publications to his name, including International Trade and the Protection of the Environment, and Human Rights and Corporate Wrongs - Closing the Governance Gap. He has also written and taught extensively on commercial law, trusts and environmental law. Simon is a member of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, a University Research Centre within the School of Law, and he currently teaches at Swansea on the LLM in:Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air; Charterparties Law and Practice; International Corporate Governance.

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