I have been reading lately. I have been reading a lot, lately…. I finished reading this article last night, on the bus on my way home from work. Yes, I use public transit. I gave up my personal gas pedal almost 3 years ago.
Water Rights and Environmental Damage: An Enquiry into Stewardship in the Context of Abstraction Licensing Reform in England and Wales. Written by Donald McGillivary. Published by Environmental Law Review, Volume 15, 2013. Pages 205-224.
Donald McGillivray, Professor of Environmental Law, University of Sussex, has a current publication list here.
I found this article doing a random search on water rights. I was looking more towards Western Canada, where I live, but all information is good and this article is full of definitions that will probably help me in further reading. And, bonus marks, Professor McGillivray’s writing is concise and clear.
Probably the most important things that I realized while reading this article was that the environment is not protected by stewardship rights or laws. That the only time we really protect the environment is when there is an overlap of needs between someone holding water (or land) rights and the environment. In other words, when it benefits someone to protect something, the environment is looked after. Not something that I had not realized before but, seeing it in a published article is different.
A couple of ‘Further Readings’ (from the footnotes) that I made note of:
E.D. Elliot, ‘The Tragi-Comedy of the Commons: Evolutionary Biology, Economics and Environmental Law‘ (2001) 20 Viriginia Environmental Law Journal 17, pages 17-18.
C.P. Rodgers. ‘Nature’s Place? Property Rights, Property Rules and Environmental Stewardship‘ (2009), Volume 68(3) Cambridge Law Journal 550.
TheMorningTomatoReport 