Law Commons^™

Property, Unbundled Water Entitlements, And Anticommons Tragedies: A Cautionary Tale From Australia, Paul Babie, Paul Leadbeter, Kyriaco Nikias

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

As water becomes an increasingly scarce resource, a lack of clarity in relation to its use can produce both conflict among and inefficient use by users. In order to encourage markets in water and to ensure the viability and functionality of those markets, governments in many jurisdictions have moved away from commons property as a means of water allocation, and towards systems of private property in water. In doing so, one policy and legal option is “unbundling”, which seeks carefully to define both the entitlement to water and its separation into constituent parts. Advocates claim that unbundling makes water rights …

Texas Groundwater And Tragically Stable “Crossovers”, Zachary A. Bray

Zachary Bray

One recurring question in the academic literature on common-pool resources relates to the persistence of “tragic” commons regimes—systems that encourage, or at least tolerate, the inefficient, wasteful, hazardous, or unfair exploitation of a resource that is easily accessed for and diminished by individual use and consumption. Of course, not all commons are tragic: some common-pool resources invite individual access in efficient, fair, and durable ways. Yet many commonly held resources do lie under systems of governance that are not just tragic but persistently and stubbornly so. Often the tragic aspects of such commons regimes are well known; indeed, for some …

Slides: Practicing Sustainability In Natural Resource Industries, Gary D. Libecap

Natural Resource Industries and the Sustainability Challenge (Martz Winter Symposium, February 27-28)

Presenter: Gary D. Libecap, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and Economics Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

10 slides

Blueprint For The Great Lakes Trail, Melissa K. Scanlan

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The Great Lakes are vast yet vulnerable. There is a need to focus the public’s attention on the significance of the lakes for the region as a cohesive, binational whole. To address this need, build on existing water law, and engage the public, this Article provides a blueprint to establish a Great Lakes Trail on the shores of the Great Lakes. The Trail will link together 10,000 miles of coastline and provide the longest marked walking trail in the world. It will demarcate an already existing, yet largely unrecognized, public trust easement and engage the public with their common heritage …

Texas Groundwater And Tragically Stable “Crossovers”, Zachary A. Bray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

One recurring question in the academic literature on common-pool resources relates to the persistence of “tragic” commons regimes—systems that encourage, or at least tolerate, the inefficient, wasteful, hazardous, or unfair exploitation of a resource that is easily accessed for and diminished by individual use and consumption. Of course, not all commons are tragic: some common-pool resources invite individual access in efficient, fair, and durable ways. Yet many commonly held resources do lie under systems of governance that are not just tragic but persistently and stubbornly so. Often the tragic aspects of such commons regimes are well known; indeed, for some …

Of Rainbows And Rivers: Lessons For Telecommunications Spectrum Policy From Transitions In Property Rights And Commons In Water Law, Dale B. Thompson

ExpressO

A number of industries utilize the telecommunications spectrum to provide billions of dollars of services. However, some have noted that technological development and implementation of spectrum applications have not progressed as fast in the United States as in other parts of the world To improve technological development, many have recommended significant changes in United States policy of allocating spectrum, some based on a “property rights” approach, and others based on a “commons” approach. This article takes a novel approach to this problem, by applying lessons from our two hundred year history of water law to spectrum policy. Also, instead of …

Water And The American West: Essays In Honor Of Raphael J. Moses, David H. Getches

Books, Reports, and Studies

This digital resource contains only an abstract, cover image and table of contents information from the published book.

Print copy of book is available in the University of Colorado’s Wise Law Library: http://lawpac.colorado.edu/record=b131940~S0

Contents: Foreword / [David H. Getches] -- Biographical note : a tribute to a great lawyer / John M. Sayre -- To settle a new land : an historical essay on water law in Colorado and in the American West / Charles F. Wilkinson -- A global perspective on western water / Gilbert F. White -- The international problem with Mexico over the salinity of the lower …

The Public Trust Doctrine: Conflict With Traditional Western Water Law?, Harrison C. Dunning

Western Water Law in Transition (Summer Conference, June 3-5)

24 pages.

Contains references.