BP Oil Spill: Compensation, Agency Costs, and Restitution

Abstract

The British Petroleum (BP) Oil Spill and Restitution are irresistible topics for exploration. Just as systems errors combined to cause the disaster m the Gulf of Mexico, the most human of institutions, the law, has struggled to find a proper way to respond. After the blowout, BP struggled to find a solution to an ongoing disaster of immense proportions. Over the next six months, before BP was finally able to seal the deepwater well, more than four million barrels of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, coating the ocean floor with oil, drenching birds and other wildlife in oil, and depositing oil and tar balls on the beaches of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Responding to this unprecedented disaster, the press bayed, victims cried for relief, and the wider American public was galvanized to demand "justice," "retribution," and "accountability."