Transnational compensation for oil pollution damage: examining changing spatialities of environmental liability

The civil liability regime for ship-source oil pollution stands at the forefront of rule development for transnational environmental compensation, advancing private law remedies to enable national victims of oil spill damage to make financial claims against domestic and non-domestic tanker owners and, in certain circumstances, the global oil cargo industry. This rule formulation and implementation attests to the significance of legal norms in constituting new spaces of financial accountability for transboundary environmental harm. I examine the evolving – and contested – parameters of environmental liability set by the international oil pollution liability conventions, focusing on the admissibility of reinstatement costs and the geographical scope of compensation norms. A preliminary assessment of the extent to which the liability regime meets the interests of affected (third) parties applauds its equitable consideration of environmental claims, although this is restricted by a narrow definition of damage and national boundaries of entitlement. Oil pollution harm to collective ecological interests represents a key challenge to the liability framework.