Publish time: Mon Jul 02 00:00:00 CST 2012 Contributor:Wang Ze
On June 18, 2012, a delegation of BAC composed of General Secretary Wang Hongsong, Division Chief Chen Fuyong and Secretary Xu Jie went to Washington D.C., U.S. to pay a visit to Kenneth Feinberg, who was the administrator for handling the oil spill accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Kenneth Feinberg is a partner of Feinberg & Rozen, LLP. He has successfully handled a number of compensation matters in major public accidents, including the compensation in the class action of Agent Orange product liability in Vietnam War, the national compensation in the 9.11 accident, the compensation in the gun shooting accident at Virginia Tech University, and the executive compensation during the financial crisis etc. After the occurrence of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Kenneth Feinberg accepted the appointment by the Obama Administration and the entrustment of BP to serve as the administer of BP’s Compensation Fund, who is responsible for establishing a temporary compensation team, developing compensation rules and handling the claims for damages arising from the oil spill. Since June 16, 2010, appointed by the Obama Administration, Mr. Kenneth Feinberg has been in charge of a compensation fund of 20 billion US dollars1. The Gulf Coast Claim Facility (GCCF) that was run by him has well settled more than 1 million damages claim cases of the Gulf Oil Spill, and paid more than 6.2 billion US dollars to 220,000 claimants, of which 840 million US dollars was paid expeditiously in the second moth following the establishment of GCCF, averaging 27 million US dollars per day2. That successfully buffered the outburst of a large scale conflicts. Although that mode of dispute resolution of GCCF gave rise to some disputes, it is fair, transparent and efficient according to the evaluation of the Department of Justice of US. It is highly effective in settling conflicts immediately after the occurrence of group disputes3.
Mr. Feinberg is an expert enjoying a high reputation in dispute resolution in the circles of law and politics in U.S., who is rich in social administrative experience and wisdom, and is also highly skilled in coordination and mediation, good at handling complicated and difficult group urgencies involving social and public interest. With his endeavor, many funds were founded for major group urgencies in the US, and a compensation funds based dispute resolution mode was developed, in which an impartial independent third party mediates and handles compensation matters; that mode has achieved good social results. His experience and practices in this regard are valuable references for the legal sector of China.
(A Fervent Talk with Kenneth Feinberg)
The delegation was warmly received by Mr. Feinberg and he briefed on the experience, challenges and problems in handling group disputes through compensation funds. He believed that even in the U.S. legal and political systems which are comparably more consummate, it would be adverse for reaching a consensus in the society and would waste a great deal of public resources or even curtail the development of the society if a large scale group dispute were to be handled only through the traditional class action; or if the dispute is to be handled only by government through administrative method, it is inclined to sway the government from its impartiality, damage its public credibility or even spawn very negative political effects. Therefore, it is more appropriate to have a neutral third party to handle disputes through mediation independently and impartially, and to develop public available and transparent handling procedures, standards and scope so as to ensure that various sectors of the society can supervise the handling of disputes timely. This new type of dispute resolution is capable of seeking a consensus at the maximum extent in the dispute, significantly promote the utilization effects of compensation funds, which settle the conflicts as much as possible and safeguard the social harmony and stability.
During the talk, General Secretary Wang Hongsong extended gratitude to Mr. Feinberg for his assistance, highly praised the value and significance of the dispute resolution mode for handling the Gulf Oil Spill and gave presentation of the state of BAC as well as its wished prospect. She specially stressed that subsequent to the Bohai Gulf oil spill, BAC jointly held a symposium with the Research Institute of International Strategy of the Party School of the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party on “Handling Major Public Events in Harmony & the Experience and Enlightenment in Handling the Gulf Oil Spill” which was attended by relevant national policy making departments, and actively recommend the mode and experience in handling the Gulf Oil Spill to government departments. BAC called on related departments to develop a fair, transparent, professional and efficient dispute resolution mode and practice in handling large scale domestic group compensation case. General secretary Wang Hongsong also expressed that BAC wished to introduce the valuable experience of Mr. Feinberg in this respect to related departments and people of China, and invited him to present his knowledge and experience in this respect in China at his own convenient time. Mr. Feinberg pleasantly accepted the invitation. Both parties continued their discussions in more depth on some major issues in settling group disputes by an independent third party.
(Wang Hongsong and Kenneth Feinberg Are Exchanging Gifts)
At the end of the visit, General Secretary Wang Hongsong presented an exquisite gift to Mr. Feinberg and Mr. Feinberg presented his newly published book “Who Gets What” signed by him as his gift in return.
1.Please refer to the news released by the White House for more details of the appointment of Kenneth Feinberg on the part of Obama Administration http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/17/a-new-process-and-a-new-escrow-account-gulf-oil-spill-claims-bp
2.Please refer to the operation assessment report of GCCF on the party of the Ministry of Justice of America for relevant data www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/697201241917226179477.pdf
3.Please refer to the operation assessment report of GCCF on the party of the Ministry of Justice of America for relevant conclusions www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/66520126611210351178.pdf