33 U.S.C. § 2707
Section 2707 · Recovery by foreign claimants
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case United States v. BP Exploration & Production, Inc. (2014)
Most recently applied in United States v. BP Exploration & Production, Inc. (September 2014)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(1) In general
In addition to satisfying the other requirements of this Act, to recover removal costs or damages resulting from an incident a foreign claimant shall demonstrate that—
(A) the claimant has not been otherwise compensated for the removal costs or damages; and
(B) recovery is authorized by a treaty or executive agreement between the United States and the claimant's country, or the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Attorney General and other appropriate officials, has certified that the claimant's country provides a comparable remedy for United States claimants.
(2) Exceptions
Paragraph (1)(B) shall not apply with respect to recovery by a resident of Canada in the case of an incident described in subsection (b)(4) of this section.
A foreign claimant may make a claim for removal costs and damages resulting from a discharge, or substantial threat of a discharge, of oil in or on the territorial sea, internal waters, or adjacent shoreline of a foreign country, only if the discharge is from—
(1) an Outer Continental Shelf facility or a deepwater port;
(2) a vessel in the navigable waters;
(3) a vessel carrying oil as cargo between 2 places in the United States; or
(4) a tanker that received the oil at the terminal of the pipeline constructed under the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act (43 U.S.C. 1651 et seq.), for transportation to a place in the United States, and the discharge or threat occurs prior to delivery of the oil to that place.
In this section, the term “foreign claimant” means—
(1) a person residing in a foreign country;
(2) the government of a foreign country; and
(3) an agency or political subdivision of a foreign country.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
This Act, referred to in subsec. (a)(1), is Pub. L. 101–380, Aug. 18, 1990, 104 Stat. 484, as amended, known as the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which is classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 2701 of this title and Tables.
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, referred to in subsec. (b)(4), is title II of Pub. L. 93–153, Nov. 16, 1973, 87 Stat. 584, which is classified generally to chapter 34 (§1651 et seq.) of Title 43, Public Lands. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 1651 of Title 43 and Tables.