Water Resources Law

The course emphasizes western water law with special attention to California. We deal at length with public rights in water, the public trust, area of origin claims, federal and Indian reserved rights, interstate controversies, environmental assessment, and the limitations of the takings clause on reallocations of water use. Water pollution and water quality are addressed only peripherally. The course thesis asserts that water is a distinctive species of property, a community resource that can never be fully privatized and that must be used in the public interest. We explore this remarkable idea.