Today there are two separate regimes of liability for oil pollution damage: the international regime, which is based on multilateral conventions, and the autonomous United States regime. After the US Administration’s decision to withdraw from the international system (1989), the US Congress enacted the 1990 Oil Pollution Act (OPA). This piece of legislation was passed in the aura of public demand for stringent regulation of oil pollution damage to marine environment. The OPA allows states to enact laws that would furnish greater protection to the injured parties than federal law.

The US is a known critic of the international regime due to its low liability limits and exclusion of environmental damage. Accordingly, there are numerous differences between the US regime and the international one. The OPA has a wider scope as it covers also oil spilled from facilities and bunker oilspills. Furthermore, the US legislation offers superior protection to the injured as it adopts a wider definition of oil pollution damage. Thus, the Author argues, the OPA embodies the polluter pays principle (PPP) to a greater extent than the international system