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University of Washington School of Law

Water Law

Public trust doctrine

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Putting The Public Back In The Public Trust Doctrine: A Reinterpretation To Advance Native Hawaiian Water Rights, Steven Hindman Dec 2023

Putting The Public Back In The Public Trust Doctrine: A Reinterpretation To Advance Native Hawaiian Water Rights, Steven Hindman

Washington Law Review

The public trust doctrine guarantees that the government will hold natural resources in trust and protect them for the common good. The doctrine has played a key role in the allocation of water rights, particularly for Native American and Native Hawaiian interests in the United States. State and federal courts often consider the doctrine when deciding if certain use rights should be granted. In Hawai‘i, the doctrine has taken on a particularly robust form because the State Constitution expressly provides that all public natural resources are to be held in trust for the benefit of all Hawaiians. Unfortunately, the doctrine’s …


Oil And The Public Trust Doctrine In Washington, Ralph W. Johnson Apr 1991

Oil And The Public Trust Doctrine In Washington, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

The tragic spill of millions of gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound alerted the people of Washington to the danger of spills in Puget Sound. In Washington, the danger heightens as the amount of oil transported through the Sound increases. Indeed, Coast Guard figures show about 1,500 tanker movements in Puget Sound in 1988, a 50 percent increase over 1974.2 Moreover, the spill from the Exxon Valdez taught us that, because very little can be done after a spill, the only truly effective means of preventing damage from oil spills is to prevent them in the first place. …


The Public Trust Doctrine: Accommodating The Public Need Within Constitutional Bounds—Orion Corp. V. State, 109 Wash. 2d 621, 747 P.2d 1062 (1987), Cert. Denied, 108 S. Ct. 1996 (1988), Steven W. Turnbull Oct 1988

The Public Trust Doctrine: Accommodating The Public Need Within Constitutional Bounds—Orion Corp. V. State, 109 Wash. 2d 621, 747 P.2d 1062 (1987), Cert. Denied, 108 S. Ct. 1996 (1988), Steven W. Turnbull

Washington Law Review

Following decades of neglecting its public trust duties, Washington now accepts the public trust doctrine as a permanent fixture in its law. In Orion Corp. v. State, the Washington Supreme Court reaffirmed the state's sovereign interest as the public's trustee in its tidelands, marshes, and shorelands. The court declared that private use of protected trust lands must conform to the public's interest in navigation, fishing, and recreation, and must not be harmful to the land's dependent wildlife. The court, however, declined to define the public trust's reach, stating only that it is coextensive with the public need. This standard suggests …


The Public Trust Doctrine: Accommodating The Public Need Within Constitutional Bounds—Orion Corp. V. State, 109 Wash. 2d 621, 747 P.2d 1062 (1987), Cert. Denied, 108 S. Ct. 1996 (1988), Steven W. Turnbull Oct 1988

The Public Trust Doctrine: Accommodating The Public Need Within Constitutional Bounds—Orion Corp. V. State, 109 Wash. 2d 621, 747 P.2d 1062 (1987), Cert. Denied, 108 S. Ct. 1996 (1988), Steven W. Turnbull

Washington Law Review

Following decades of neglecting its public trust duties, Washington now accepts the public trust doctrine as a permanent fixture in its law. In Orion Corp. v. State, the Washington Supreme Court reaffirmed the state's sovereign interest as the public's trustee in its tidelands, marshes, and shorelands. The court declared that private use of protected trust lands must conform to the public's interest in navigation, fishing, and recreation, and must not be harmful to the land's dependent wildlife. The court, however, declined to define the public trust's reach, stating only that it is coextensive with the public need. This standard suggests …


Public Trust Protection For Stream Flows And Lake Levels, Ralph W. Johnson Nov 1980

Public Trust Protection For Stream Flows And Lake Levels, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

The public trust doctrine and the appropriative water rights system are headed on a collision course in the West. Appropriators claim vested property rights to extract water for irrigation, mining, manufacturing and other uses. They further assert that under the appropriation doctrine such extractions can continue in perpetuity regardless of the consequences to navigation, fishery and other public values. The public, however, increasingly insists on more protection for environmental and ecological values, aesthetic quality and recreational opportunities, which on lakes and streams usually means leaving waters in place. As a result, the courts are being asked to apply legal doctrines …


Harbor Lines And The Public Trust Doctrine In Washington Navigable Waters, Ralph W. Johnson, Eileen M. Cooney Mar 1979

Harbor Lines And The Public Trust Doctrine In Washington Navigable Waters, Ralph W. Johnson, Eileen M. Cooney

Washington Law Review

Since 1971 the Shoreline Management Act (SMA) has been the dominant legal tool for managing the Washington coastal zone. However, use of state-owned beds of navigable fresh and salt waters below low tide or the low-water line is still controlled largely by the harbor line system established in the 1889 state constitution. Almost no attention has been paid to the harbor line system in the legal literature, or to its relationship to the other laws concerned with coastal zone management. This article briefly analyzes the relationship of the harbor line system to the SMA, to the various federal laws concerned …