Water resources were central to England's precocious economic development in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and then again in the industrial, transport, and urban revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Each of these periods saw a great deal of legal conflict over water rights, often between domestic, agricultural, and manufacturing interests competing for access to flowing water. From 1750 the common-law courts developed a large but unstable body of legal doctrine, specifying strong property rights in flowing water attached to riparian possession, and also limited rights to surface and underground waters. The new water doctrines were built from older concepts of common goods and the natural rights of ownership, deriving from Roman and Civilian law, together with the English sources of Bracton and Blackstone. Water law is one of the most Romanesque parts of English law, demonstrating the extent to which Common and Civilian law have commingled. Water law stands as a refutation of the still-common belief that English and European law parted ways irreversibly in the twelfth century. Getzler also describes the economic as well as the legal history of water use from early times, and examines the classical problem of the relationship between law and economic development. He suggests that water law was shaped both by the impact of technological innovations and by economic ideology, but above all by legalism.

Originally published: 5th ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1956.

This volume describes how the courts created rights for land owners and users competing to appropriate water for factories town supply, drainage, and transport. It covers the period from early times to the late 19th century, illustrating the changing common law of property and tort.

Water and the Law in Hawaii provides an intellectual and legal framework for understanding both the past and future of Hawai‘i’s freshwater resources. It covers not only the känäwai (laws) governing the balancing act between preservation and use, but also the science of aquifers and streams and the customs and traditions practiced by ancient and present-day Hawaiians on the äina (land) and in the wai (water). In placing Hawaii water law in the context of its historical development, the author condenses an enormous amount of information on traditional Hawaiian social structure and mythology. His analysis and explanation of the Hawaii Supreme Court decisions on water rights pose difficult questions and reveal the Court's at times defective reasoning by referring readers to original source material. He is the first author to explain fully how water use permits will play out in a variety of circumstances that may arise in the future, and he discusses the interrelationship between the State Water Code and the common law on water rights, which few people understand or are aware of. Water and the Law in Hawaii is a vital contribution to understanding water law in Hawaii. It will prove invaluable to students of the subject and will appeal to those with an interest in cultural anthropology, planning, Hawaiian history, and political science.

This book is an account of how water rights were designed as a key part of the state’s largest public water system, the Central Valley Project. Along sixty miles of the San Joaquin River, from Gustine to Mendota, four corporate entities called “exchange contractors” retain paramount water rights to the river. Their rights descend from the days of the Miller & Lux Cattle Company, which amassed an empire of land and water from the 1850s through the 1920s and protected these assets through business deals and prolific litigation. Miller & Lux’s dominance of the river relied on what many in the San Joaquin Valley regarded as wasteful irrigation practices and unreasonable water usage. Economic and political power in California’s present water system was born of this monopoly on water control. Stroshane tells how drought and legal conflict shaped statewide economic development and how the grand bargain of a San Joaquin River water exchange was struck from this monopoly legacy, setting the stage for future water wars. His analysis will appeal to readers interested in environmental studies and public policy.

DIV Making extensive use of archival and other primary sources, David Schorr demonstrates that the development of the “appropriation doctrine,” a system of private rights in water, was part of a radical attack on monopoly and corporate power in the arid West. Schorr describes how Colorado miners, irrigators, lawmakers, and judges forged a system of private property in water based on a desire to spread property and its benefits as widely as possible among independent citizens. He demonstrates that ownership was not dictated by concerns for economic efficiency, but by a regard for social justice. /div

According to a famous Talmudic story (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat: 31a), a gentile once approached Rabbi Hillel and asked to be taught the entire Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel replied, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself. That is the entire Torah. The rest is simply an explanation. Go and learn it!’ In much the same way, Jewish law can be described in one word—Torah. All the rest is simply an explanation. The Torah, also known as the Bible, the five books of Moses, and the Pentateuch, was written over 3,000 years ago. Since then, Jewish law has developed various interpretations and applications of the Torah, interpretations of those interpre- tions, and so on. Jewish law contains civil dictates as well as religious protocol. Problems that arose in the framework of religious life and problems surrounding civil relationships both found solutions in the same legal source—the Torah and the Halacha, the Jewish legal interpretations and rulings. This chapter on water law in the Jewish tradition provides insight into Jewish law and custom in general, and rules related to the protection of water sources in particular. One should not look, however, to find a written code of Jewish law, as there is none.

As global climate change threatens to change radically both the political and physical climate with regard to water issues, so a reassessment of some of the fundamental principles of international water law is emerging. One of the most important principles being reassessed is the sovereign equality of states. This volume brings together more than thirty leading international water and legal specialists to explore the development and changing relationship between water, state sovereignty and international law. Offering fresh insights into one of the most pressing issues in global water policy, Sovereignty and International Water Law will form an essential reference for water professionals, legal specialists and policy makers alike.

Modern Water Law provides a comprehensive text to study the range of legal issues and doctrines that affect water resources. This is a national book that uses many recent cases, bringing a fresh perspective to the field. The authors begin with private water use rights, including common law doctrines for riparian reasonable use and prior appropriation, as well as groundwater rights and the statutory schemes for administering water use rights. The book next explores the range of public rights in water, including navigation, the public trust doctrine, federal reserved rights for tribal and public lands, and interstate water management. The book then explores modern challenges and environmental protection goals, focusing on the energy-water nexus, water pollution, and endangered species conflicts. The final chapters combine these concepts in the context of complex watershed restoration challenges and water rights takings litigation. The second edition begins with entirely new coverage of the human right to water, including a 2017 federal case regarding constitutional rights in the wake of the Flint, Michigan water crisis. Other major changes and developments include new cases on water use permitting, "takings" of private water rights, tribal rights to groundwater, interstate water disputes, and U.S.-Mexico water diplomacy. The second edition continues the logical organization that presents the field in appropriate depth for a semester course, with clear explanations and helpful questions and comments.