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- Title
Appropriative Water Rights and the Efficient Allocation of Resources.
- Authors
Burness, H. Stuart; Quirk, James P.
- Abstract
This article examines the efficiency implications of the appropriative doctrine at a long-run competitive equilibrium under simplified assumptions as to the legal status of water rights in the U.S. Historically, water rights to surface water in the U.S. have developed under two distinct legal doctrines, the English common law notion of riparian rights and the appropriative doctrine. Generally speaking, the riparian doctrine forms the basis for water law in the eastern states, while the western states have adopted the appropriative doctrine. Under the riparian doctrine, each property owner fronting on a lake or stream has a right to the unimpaired use of the waterway, regardless of the location of his property along the waterway and regardless of the time at which the property is acquired or use made of the waterway.
- Subjects
UNITED States; WATER rights; WATER laws; RIPARIAN rights; LAND tenure laws
- Publication
American Economic Review, 1979, Vol 69, Issue 1, p25
- ISSN
0002-8282
- Publication type
Article