Federal, State, And Local Rules Essay

The federal court System is organized in three levels: US District Court, The lowest tier of the federal court system (deals with small cases such as civil suits, and federal government as a party), US Court of Appeals (does not open new cases and hear evidence or testimony, only review judgments), and US Supreme Court (only interprets cases that have been already in US Courts of Appeals).

This paper includes information regarding the BP Oil spill. References are listed at the bottom.

With the development of the act, laws and regulations addressing issues associated with the prevention, responds and payment of oil pollution were put in place. Such laws and regulations mandated new requirements for companies and their associated personnel involved in the shipment or extraction of oil, such as prevention and response plans, routine documentation and licensing renewal, and evidence of personnel’s competency and knowledge. The act also revised the staffing standards of all foreign shipment vessels, thereby requiring all foreign vessels to meet U.S standards to gain entry into U.S territory. Additionally, these prevention laws and regulations required new standards for shipment vessels and routine inspections. Due to the extreme

On April 20th 2010 an explosion on an oil ridge of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, was the cause of the greatest environmental disaster in history of the United States. This explosion took the lives of eleven men who were working on the ridge, and also ruptured an oil line, which dumped more than 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This oil spill significantly affected the wildlife of the gulf coast, killing hundreds of fishes, birds, and reptile that call the gulf coast home. The spill also affected global supply chain for major industries.

In this paper I will discuss a case involving Henry, a resident of Nevada, who sued Adam, a resident of Utah in the Federal Court in California. Henry sought $60,000 damages for personal injuries arising from an automobile accident that occurred in Los Angeles, California. I will answer the following questions about this case. Does the Federal Court have jurisdiction? What rules of procedure will the court use? Why? And what rules of substantive law will the court use? One of the most essential questions of law is whether a given court has jurisdiction to preside over a given case. Jurisdiction means the power to hear a case. Many courts

The Exxon Valdez oil spill which occurred in 1989, 11 to 38 million us gallon oil spill is one of environmental disaster which had polluted the water and disturbed the natural habitat (Hellawell, Trevor). This incident mainly resulted in amendment of section 311, which mainly has goals and objectives to report and document the oil spill incidents and these documented reports are used for cleanup of oil pollutants from water and to restore its natural properties.

The Oil Pollution Act was established in 1990 in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in March 1989. The Oil Pollution Act placed the Federal Government in charge of management and control of oil spills, control of containment, removal and clean up efforts. This law holds who ever is deemed responsible for the oil spill to pay for the damages, containment, and clean up of the oil spill. In accordance with OPA90, an oil spill must be reported to the Federal Government. Upon reporting the oil spill to the government, BP reported that the well was leaking 1,000 barrels a day when it was discharging upwards of 40,000 barrels a day. Every deep-water drilling company is required to have what is called a contingency plan. A contingency plan

authorized by state statute. Tennessee statute provides that an officer "May use all the necessary means to effect the arrest" (Hatcher, Dickson pg 3). A Memphis police officer shot and killed Garner because he had been told to stop and instead he went over a fence to the backyard of a house he was suspected to be robbing. The officer used deadly force even tho he was sure Garner was unarmed. The officer portrayed him to be 17 or 18 years of age and at slight built. Even though Garner may have been a criminal, Garner's father did not believe that he had the right to take his life. Gerner's father filed charges under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for violations of his son's constitutional rights. The Tennessee statute is unconstitutional as it authorizes

Oil spills are usually associated with environmental disasters; because of this the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and related policies have inadequate amount of tools that will help humans deal with these accidents. When the Macondo blow out happened, we had to assess the impact that it also had on human health, mental and physical because it had affected a large area. The Macondo spill unfortunately happened less than five years after Hurricane Katrina damaged Louisiana and Mississippi coast. Clearly, a lesson that was learnt from the oil spill was that the nation wasn’t prepared for widespread, poor effects on human health and mental well-being. Most of the communities along the Gulf had resided there for the majority of their lives or at least 20 years; this oil spill had worried the residents about payments, money issues, and the stability of their communities, which in turn affected their health.

After two months Macondo well began gushing crude oil, President Barack Obama addressed to the nation from the Oval Office, he said: “Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it is not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years.” Through January 25, 2011, there were collected 8,209 birds, 1,143 sea turtles, and 109 marine mammals affected by the spill—alive or dead, visibly oiled or not (Unified Area Command). It is quite apparent that the Deepwater Horizon blowout is both terrible environmental and human catastrophe and it will probably demand not months but decades of nationwide effort to address and recover (Deep water).The specific goal of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for identifying and understanding the economic and environmental consequences of Deepwater Horizon oil spill and to determine appropriate approaches to avoid future disasters.

There are a number of contemporary issues affecting today’s companies and relevant stakeholders that can be derived from the Deepwater horizon oil spill incident. The most notable contemporary issue is pollution; the incident resulted in 4.9 million barrels of oil

Recently, oil spill management has become a serious concern and subsequently, it has become a big issue as it takes a large, specifically trained team effort to solve the devastating problem. It also requires consistent efforts of the workforce. The Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico was perhaps another major contributing factor to highlighting the need for Oil Spill Management to be addressed. The director of the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement, Michael Bromwich stated that this oil spill proved that oil and gas organizations were not prepared to deal with oil spills. (Merolli, 2010).

With the huge impact of the oil spill on marine life and coastal regions, fishing and tourism industries of the places affected in the Gulf Coast severely declined. In the fishing industry, the incident led to an approximate $2.5 billion loss, while tourist industries experienced a loss of a predicted $23 billion (Jarvis, 2010). In addition, the moratorium placed on deep water drilling left 58,000 workers unemployed (ibid).

In response to the disaster, Congress has enacted the RESTORE Act, which states that “80 percent of the fines BP pays under the CWA will go toward environmental and economic restoration projects in the Gulf” (Beinecke, 2013, para. 20). This act is important in that those who were affected by the spill will eventually receive compensation. However, there has been nothing done to improve offshore drilling and to make it safer. Immediate actions that could be taken by Congress include raising the liability cap and financial responsibility requirements for offshore facilities. They could also raise the OSLTF’s limitation on funds that are available for federal agency spill responses (Beinecke, 2013).

Since the past few decades, owning a car has become a necessity in order to commute from one place to another. However, cars do not work automatically, they require fuel. Since the past decade, the petroleum industry has become one of the leading industries impacting the nation’s economy. Oil has become an essential commodity as it is utilized in transportation vehicles, serves as a raw material for manufacturing plastics, and is utilized in homes for cooking. America’s economy is greatly dependent on petroleum as it is the “black gold” of the nation. The considerable significance of oil has led to the drilling of it, which is not only limited to land, but also the oceans. Offshore drilling is a method in which petroleum is extracted from underneath the seabed. It is one of the significant technological advancements in the past few decades. However, the ones who are involved in the process of offshore oil production are humans, and humans tend to make mistakes. In 1969, due to a human error, an oil spill occurred and natural gas, oil, and mud shot up the well and oozed into the ocean (“Offshore Drilling”). The oil spilled led to an environmental disaster which killed thousands of marine animals and distorted the environment. In order to prevent the same error, the government passed a moratorium in 1981, banning more than 85 percent of the country’s oil drilling sites (“Offshore Drilling”). The moratorium restricted the United States to mass-produce its natural resource.