Outer Continental Shelf Facilities and Operations

The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Acts (OCSLA) extends federal law to the Outer Continental Shelf and to injuries suffered thereon that result from energy-related activities. In addition the OCSLA adopts as federal law the laws of each adjacent state where they are not in conflict with federal law, “for that portion of the subsoil and seabed of the Outer Continental Shelf, and artificial islands and fixed structures erected thereon, which would be within the area of the State if its boundaries were extended seaward to the outer margin of the Outer Continental Shelf. State law does not supplant the general maritime law, however, and injuries resulting from tortuous activity on navigable waters are governed by the latter, despite the fact that the subsoil beneath those waters may form part of the Outer Continental Shelf.

Excerpts from Admiralty and Maritime Law by Professor Robert Force (Federal Judicial Center 2004).