In 1851, the Limitation of Liability Act was passed in the U.S.,
which (among other things) applied to oil spills from vessels.
Vessel owners were liable for incident-related costs only up to the
post-incident value of the vessel. In 1924, Congress passed the
first Oil Pollution Act, expanding vessel owner liability for
intentional/deliberate discharges. Two very infamous and
world-shocking incidents later evidenced the issues with this
limited oil spill liability.
First, in 1967, the supertanker SS Torrey Canyon ran aground on
the Seven Stones reef, spilling over 100,000 tons of crude oil into
the English Channel. The vessel was, at the time, owned by a
subsidiary of Union Oil Company, but Liberian-flagged and chartered
out to British Petroleum. She was destroyed, and the owner's
liability for the incident was limited to $5.00 – the value
of the lone remaining lifeboat. In the 1960s and 1970s, this led to
an international push for more regulation, leading to
