Law Commons^™

Water Governance In Haiti: An Assessment Of Laws And Institutional Capacities, Ryan Stoa

Faculty Publications

The Republic of Haiti struggles to sustainably manage its water resources. Public health is compromised by low levels of water supply, sanitation, and hygiene, and water resources are often contaminated and unsustainably allocated. While poor governance is often blamed for these shortcomings, the laws and institutions regulating water resources in Haiti are poorly understood, especially by the international community. This study brings together and analyzes Haitian water laws, assesses institutional capacities, and provides a case study of water management in northern Haiti in order to provide a more complete picture of the sector. Funded by the Inter-American Development Bank as …

Weed And Water Law: Regulating Legal Marijuana, Ryan Stoa

Faculty Publications

Marijuana is nearing the end of its prohibition in the United States. Arguably the country’s largest cash crop, marijuana is already legal for recreational use in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington DC. Between now and election day 2016, an additional 14 states may place marijuana legalization initiatives on their ballots. In addition, 23 states and Washington DC have legalized medical marijuana, with up to seven states pending legislation. The era of marijuana prohibition is rapidly coming to a close.

At the same time, traditional doctrines of water law are struggling to cope with the modern realities of water scarcity. …

Droughts, Floods, And Wildfires: Paleo Perspectives On Disaster Law In The Anthropocene, Ryan Stoa

Faculty Publications

Humanity’s impact on the earth has become so pronounced that momentum is building toward adopting a new term for the modern geological age — the “Anthropocene.” The term signifies that human activity has reached a scale that it is now a planetary force capable of shaping ecosystems and natural processes. And yet, anthropocentric natural resources management and environmental lawmaking in the United States reveals a lack of control in managing natural systems and fostering resilience to extreme events. These systems do not easily conform to the whims of reactionary environmental policies. Droughts, floods, and wildfires, in particular, are often conceptualized …

Florida Water Management Districts And The Florida Water Resources Act: The Challenges Of Basin-Level Management, Ryan Stoa

Faculty Publications

Florida’s plentiful freshwater resources are indispensable to the state’s municipal, agricultural, and environmental interests. As such, decision-makers presiding over complex water management decisions wield extraordinary powers. The Water Resources Act of Florida vests these powers in five water management districts drawn according to hydrological (not political) boundaries. The water management districts have robust technical, financial, and regulatory powers, and hold the key to Florida’s sustainable development. But with the stakes so high, Florida’s water management districts are at the center of a broader fight for control of water resources. In particular, transboundary water conflicts, political pressure, and ecological needs show …

The United Nations Watercourses Convention On The Dawn Of Entry Into Force, Ryan Stoa

Faculty Publications

The United Nations Watercourses Convention entered into force in August 2014. Despite overwhelming support when signed in 1997, the ratification process has been slow. As a binding treaty, the Watercourses Convention provides hope that its provisions will articulate legal principles of transboundary water management capable of promoting cooperation and regional agreements. Despite entry into force, however, global support for the Watercourses Convention is weak, concurrent efforts to develop treaty regimes governing water resources create competition for resources and may obscure understandings of international water law, and the foundational principles of the Watercourses Convention remain ambiguous. These limitations are illustrated in …

Introduction: The Deepwater Horizon Incident, Charles H. Norchi

Faculty Publications

In this symposium, the contributors appraise the regulatory and institutional pathologies that contributed to the incident, offer projections based on current practices and legal frameworks, propose alternative institutional and regulatory approaches, and recommend policies to achieve a preferred future for marine ecosystems and dependent human activity.

Introduction: Twenty-Five Years Of The Gulf Of Maine Judgment, Charles H. Norchi

Faculty Publications

An overview and retrospective on the Gulf of Maine Maritime Boundary case. This decision is a milestone in oceans law, and it continues to effect fisheries, oil and gas exploration, alternative energy production, and other issues in Canadian-American relations and beyond.

When International Law Was Made In Maine: The Gulf Of Maine Judgment At 25 Years, Charles H. Norchi

Faculty Publications

A retrospective on the Gulf of Maine case and the contribution Maine's lawyers made to it.

The Public Order Of Ports, Charles H. Norchi

Faculty Publications

The OCLJ invited leading authorities to consider a range of maritime port law problems and policies. The ensuring articles treat port "incidents" that implicate and spawn international law including custom, conventions, and agreements and national or municipal law.

The Myths And Truths That Ended The 2000 Tmdl Program, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Federal And State Water Quality Regulation And Law In Missouri, Peter N. Davis

Faculty Publications

This article discusses that law in two parts. The first part examines the federal and Missouri waste discharge regulatory system. The second part analyzes common law rights and remedies related to water pollution.

Environmental Water Rights: An Evolving Concept Of Public Property, Lynda L. Butler

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Necessary Interrelationship Between Land Use And Preservation Of Groundwater Resources, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Protecting Waste Assimilation Streamflows By The Law Of Water Allocation, Nuisance, And Public Trust, And By Environmental Statutes, Peter N. Davis

Faculty Publications

Both federal and state water pollution control statutes require dramatic reductions in waste discharges, but not their total elimination. Those statutes require establishing water quality standards for receiving waters and presume that they will be adequate to assimilate the residual post treatment wastes. But nothing is those statutes assures that minimum flows for waste assimilation in fact will remain in existence. Neither the common law nor eastern and western diversion permit statutes expressly provide direct means for establishing such minimum protected flows for residual waste assimilation. Those means include establishing minimum flows for fish and wildlife habitat and recreation purposes …

Defining A Water Ethic Through Comprehensive Reform: A Suggested Framework For Analysis, Lynda L. Butler

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Allocating Consumptive Water Rights In A Riparian Jurisdiction: Defining The Relationship Between Public And Private Interests, Lynda L. Butler

Faculty Publications

Historically, water consumption in the eastern United States has been governed by the common-law riparian doctrine. Fashioned to protect the domestic uses of private individuals in a largely agrarian society, the doctrine is not well suited to today's environment in which the demands of public users have grown enormously. Even in the East, where water has long been abundant, the effects of increased consumption, pollution, and periodic drought have brought the continued viability of the doctrine into question. Professor Butler examines the legal standards which have developed under the riparian doctrine and identifies three principal areas in which the doctrine …

The Riparian Right Of Streamflow Protection In The Eastern States, Peter N. Davis

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the extent to which the riparian doctrine can be employed to protect minimum streamflows for purposes of maintaining fish and wildlife habitat, recreational use capacity and waste assimilative capacity of watercourses in the eastern states.

Eastern Water Diversion Permit Statutes: Precedents For Missouri, Peter N. Davis

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the need in Missouri for a water diversion permit statute and suggests the form such a statute should take.

State Ownership Of Beds Of Inland Waters - A Summary And Reexamination, Peter N. Davis

Faculty Publications

This article will summarize the basic structure of bed title law and will examine its current status under the recent Supreme Court decisions. It will then analyze the cases to determine the location of title of beds of federally nonnavigable inland waters when a state created from a federal territory asserts such title.

Groundwater Pollution: Case Law Theories For Relief, Peter N. Davis

Faculty Publications

This article will describe how the courts have utilized the common law to deal with the groundwater pollution problem. I have attempted to examine every groundwater pollution case reported in the United States, England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.10 All of them, a total of 203, are listed in the Appendices. The purpose of this article is to analyze those cases to determine what rule the courts tend to use in particular kinds of groundwater pollution cases.

Wells And Streams: Relationship At Law, Peter N. Davis

Faculty Publications

Groundwater constitutes one of the major sources of water for municipalities, irrigators, and rural dwellers. Conflicts between groundwater users are bound to arise from time to time, as is evidenced by a recent Missouri case, Higday v. Nickolaus, discussed elsewhere in this issue.' Such conflicts may increase in frequency in the future as the demand for groundwater increases. Although a majority of cases will involve allocation of groundwater between users of that class of water, many groundwater diversion cases will involve adverse effects on the flow of water in streams. It is –to the latter situation that this article is …

Theories Of Water Pollution Litigation, Peter N. Davis

Faculty Publications

The common law has traditionally provided the rules that govern relationships among landowners in their use of watercourses. These rules are embodied in the eastern United States in the doctrine of riparian rights, which addresses itself both to water quantity, and to water quality. Persons complaining of pollution of waters abutting their lands have, in addition to redress by complaint to the state pollution control agency, redress by lawsuit against the alleged polluter. This common law supplements the body of statutory law regulating the waters of the state for the benefit of the people.

Australian And American Water Allocation Systems Compared, Peter N. Davis

Faculty Publications

Amid general plenty, local and regional shortages of water have appeared in the eastern United States.1 These shortages are largely the result of intense concentrations of water demand on the more important rivers-rivers which, for the most part, are heavily polluted This problem is heightened by the fact that the location of major population and industrial centers has only partially depended on availability of water supplies. In many areas, local surface and ground water supplies are inadequate and water must be imported to make up the deficit." Moreover, demands on water supplies for supplementary irrigation, for hydro-electric power, and for …