Water Law – 6126

Fall 2014

This course examines the legal mechanisms by which societyallocates and protects its most vital natural resource: water.  The primary emphasis is on current legal andpolicy issues, but the course also addresses significant aspects of thehistorical development of water policy and water law in the United States.  The course explores the following topics:

  • the riparian and prior appropriation doctrinesand modern administrative permitting schemes governing private uses of surfacewater and groundwater
  • public rights in water resources
  • federal and state water resource development,allocation, and control
  • alternative means of responding to the growing scarcityof fresh water and adapting to changes in the hydrological cycle due to climatechange
  • the appropriate role for market-based approaches
  • allocation and protection of groundwaterresources
  • environmental limits on water development,including inter alia the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act,and the public trust doctrine
  • watershed protection and restoration
  • tribal water rights
  • the doctrine of federal reserved water rights
  • mechanisms for resolving or avoiding interstateand international conflicts over, and providing joint management of,transboundary water resources

Courses in Water Law havetraditionally emphasized issues arising in the arid Western United States,where historically conflicts over competing claims on water resources have beenmost acute.  Even as these conflictsintensify in the West, however, the comparatively water-rich Eastern UnitedStates is also becoming increasingly water-constrained, promptingreconsideration of longstanding legal doctrines and policies.  This course will attempt to balance Westernand Eastern U.S, perspectives, while also addressing some importantinternational developments including (but not limited to) efforts to managewater resources in the Great Lakes.