Collaborative Research: To Investigate and Document Social Impacts of High-Stakes Litigation Resolution in a Renewable Resource Community

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。1989年3月24日，埃克森·瓦尔迪兹号油轮在布莱礁搁浅，这是阿拉斯加威廉王子湾(PWS)瓦尔迪兹分支的一个明显的航行危险，导致1100万加仑原油泄漏到周围的生态系统中。埃克森-瓦尔迪兹漏油事件(EVOS)以各种方式继续影响着PWS的生态系统和可再生自然资源，以及以生态系统资源为基础建立生活和文化的个人、团体和社区。这个项目的主要目标是记录最高法院在EVOS案中的裁决和随后支付的惩罚性损害赔偿金如何影响可再生资源社区中的社区、团体和个人。这项研究直接建立在科尔多瓦从2000年开始并一直持续到2009年的研究基础上，以创建一个纵向数据集，旨在记录与EVOS、高风险诉讼、诉讼解决和惩罚性赔偿相关的社区变化和转型。这一研究项目旨在扩大和继续1989年开始的关于eVOS对人类影响的一系列调查；研究长期的eVOS诉讼如何与长期压力、社会混乱和社会资本减少有关；以及探索长期诉讼的解决如何以及在多大程度上影响可再生资源社区和群体。这些目标的实现将提供有关社区变化、灾难恢复和个人调整的经验数据，这些数据是在脆弱的可再生资源社区因技术故障和长期诉讼而受到压力时发生的。这些成果还将为了解脆弱性问题和提高可再生资源社区在21世纪的复原力提供指导。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). On March 24, 1989, the tanker vessel Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, a well-marked navigational hazard in the Valdez Arm of Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the surrounding ecosytem. In various ways, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (EVOS) continues to affect the PWS's ecosystem and renewable natural resources, as well as individuals, groups, and communities that have built their lives and culture on ecosystem resources. The primary goal of this project is to document how the Supreme Court decision and subsequent disbursement of punitive damage awards in the EVOS case affect communities, groups, and individuals in a renewable resource community. This study builds directly upon research conducted in Cordova from starting in 2000, and continuing through 2009, to create a longitudinal data set designed to document the community change and transformation associated with the EVOS, high-stakes litigation, resolution of litigation, and punitive damage payments. This research project is designed to expand and continue a line of inquiry on human impacts of the EVOS that began in 1989; to examine how prolonged EVOS litigation has been associated with chronic stress, social disruption, and diminished social capital; and to explore how and to what extent resolution of the long-term litigation influence renewable resource communities and groups. The achievement of these objectives will provide empirical data on community change, disaster recovery, and personal adjustments that occur when fragile renewable resource communities are stressed by technological failure and long-term litigation. These results will also provide directives for understanding issues of vulnerability and enhancing the resiliency of renewable resource communities in the twenty-first century.