The prospect of conducting pollution response operations in the waters of anothercountry is or should be daunting to American oil spill response organizations (OSROs),especially those capable of large-scale deployment of forces across national borders.Problems raised by transboundary operations are very complex, require solutions to bedeveloped by governments, but with OSROs at the negotiating table, and should beaddressed well before the pollution incident occurs. One of the most difficult impedimentsis a legal one, the OSRO's liability when operating in a foreign jurisdiction, but otherbarriers exist as well, such as customs and immigration requirements, labor laws, tax andinsurance issues, and disposal of waste.This paper addresses these problems, focusing chiefly on the liability question,using Canada and existing Canadian law to illustrate the difficulties faced bytransboundary response operations. It cannot be taken for granted that close cooperationin responding to a transboundary spill will automatically occur, even where adjoiningnations are good friends and have similar legal systems. The paper explains why this isso, and illustrates the kinds of impediments that should be removed in advance, if aneffective response is to be launched when a spill happens in a transboundary setting.
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