Law Commons^™

You Gotta Fight For The Right To Vote: Enfranchising Native American Voters, Jeanette Wolfley

Faculty Scholarship

Five decades ago, the Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Since its passage, the Voting Right Act has created the opportunity to vote for many racial and language minorities across the country, and has survived many challenges until 2013. The U.S. Supreme Court issued two decisions involving voting rights in its 2012-2013 term. On June 25, 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder, a divided Supreme Court struck down Section 4 - a key provision of the 1965 Voting Right Act (VRA) - as unconstitutional. On June 17, 2013, one week before the Shelby County decision, the Court decided …

Drugs On Tap: Managing Pharmaceuticals In Our Nation’S Waters, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Pharmaceuticals in the environment and public water supplies are believed to have serious impacts on human and environmental health. Current research suggests that exposure to certain drugs and their residues may result in a variety of adverse human health effects. Other studies more conclusively show that even minute concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the environment can have detrimental effects on aquatic and terrestrial species. Unfortunately, the cost of removing these pernicious substances is out of the financial reach of most municipalities and wastewater and drinking water treatment operators.

Despite the concerns, little effort has been made to develop broad management, mitigatory, …

Ksfr Interviews Clifford Villa On The Animas River Spill, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Clifford Villas offers perspective on the Animas River spill in segment entitled, "First News: N.M. Governor, Senators Seek Answers From EPA Over Mine Spill".

Animas River Spill: 0:01-2:40 Professor Villa's quotes appear at 1:27-1:51 and 2:06-2:31; KSFR First News

Clearing Up Questions On River Spill, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

What-are the impacts of mine contamination, and who is responsible for cleaning it up?

As Long As The Water Shall Flow: Bringing Water To Tribal Homelands, Jeanette Wolfley

Faculty Scholarship

Only the first page is uploaded. Please contact the UNM Law Library on accessing the full text.

Missing Water Markets: A Cautionary Tale Of Governmental Failure, Vanessa Casado-Pérez

Faculty Scholarship

California is facing a water crisis. Water is managed through a variety of mechanisms, including government administration and market tools. This Article argues for a regulated market-based solution. When it comes to water markets, the invisible hand needs help from the visible hand of government to prove effective. Administrative systems and markets are usually portrayed in opposition to each other, as mutually exclusive solutions. Water market advocates suggest government's role is minimal. However, as this Article identifies, to establish and maintain a functioning water market, government needs to play a variety of roles. These include the uncontested role of defining …

Specially Invited Opinions And Research Report Of The International Water Law Project: Global Perspectives On The Entry Into Force Of The Un Watercourses Convention 2014: Part Two, Gabriel Eckstein, Patricia Wouters, Robyn Stein, Georgina Mackenzie, Maria Querol, Richard Paisley, Salman M.A. Salman

Faculty Scholarship

This is the second part of a research report on opinions of prominent international water lawyers from each continent on the potential impacts of the 1997 UN Convention on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. The first part of the report was published in Water Policy 16(6).

The following compilation is reproduced and adapted from a series of essays that appeared in the blog of the International Water Law Project (www.internationalwaterlaw.org). The series was solicited in preparation for the coming into force of the 1997 UN Convention on the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses. The Convention had been pending for …

Opinion Analysis: Bargaining In The Shadow Of Equitable Apportionment, Ryke Longest

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Law On The Right To Water And Adding Normative Change To The Global Agenda, Michael Ulrich

Faculty Scholarship

A resolution was passed at the United Nations Water Conference in 1977 to achieve universal access to sufficient water by 1990. This bar was lowered significantly as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, as the MDGs come to an end this year, even this reduced benchmark will not be reached. Water is inescapably intertwined with every other MDG, as well as the ability to exercise any human right. Consequently, the failure to achieve this goal implores an exploration of its causes. As the global community embarks on setting a new post-MDG agenda, one currently overlooked aspect is the …

Protecting River Flows For Fun And Profit: Colorado's Unique Water Rights For Whitewater Parks, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

Since 2001, Colorado has recognized a special type of water right for whitewater parks, which are constructed within a river channel to provide play features for kayakers and other boaters. These water rights, called "recreational in-channel diversions, " are unique to Colorado, even though whitewater parks exist in several western states. This Article addresses some of the underlying reasons that recreational in-channel diversions were established in Colorado, and traces the controversy surrounding their recognition by that state's courts and legislature. Over the last decade, however, the controversy has largely died away, and whitewater park rights have now become an accepted …

All Over The Map: The Diversity Of Western Water Plans, Vanessa Casado-Pérez, Bruce E. Cain, Iris Hui, Coral Abbott, Kaley Dodson, Shane Lebow

Faculty Scholarship

Water presents a complex challenge to western state governments. Water is scarcer in the West than in the East and western states face challenges unknown to eastern ones. The textual analysis of their state water planning summaries produced by the US Army Corps of Engineers between late 2008 and 2009 confirms the differences in their policy priorities. However, there is also a wide variance among western states’ policies as the diversity in their water plans show.

Water planning is a challenge not only because of the variability of the resource but also because water basins do not map our local, …