This course examines the legal mechanisms by which society allocates and protects its most vital natural resource: water. The primary emphasis is on current legal and policy issues, but the course also addresses the historical development of water policy and water law in the United States. Topics include: the riparian and prior appropriation doctrines and modern administrative permitting schemes governing private uses of surface water and groundwater; public rights in water resources; federal and state water resource development, allocation, and control; alternative means of responding to the growing scarcity of fresh water and adapting to changes in the hydrological cycle due to climate change; the appropriate role for market-based approaches; allocation and protection of groundwater resources; environmental limits on water development, including the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and public trust doctrine; tribal water rights; the doctrine of federal reserved water rights; mechanisms for resolving or avoiding conflicts over transboundary water resources.
Gopher Grades is maintained by Social Coding with data from Summer 2017 to Summer 2025 provided by the University in response to a public records request