Steven Bissell wrote:
>
> Just adding two cents, there is no "right to water" than I am aware of. The
> morality of water law has not, to my knowledge, been looked at closely.
> sb
>
Dreamer: There is a right to equitable distribution of water, and to
resistance against inequitable acquisition and commercialization of
water. The right is recognized in some cultures and denied in others.
I recommend Edith Brown Weiss, In Fairness to Future Generations:
International Law, Common Patrimony, and Intergenerational Equity,
United Nations University (1989). The Justinian Institutes provided
that "The things which are naturally everybody's are: air, flowing
water, the sea, and the sea-shore." (Roman Institutes of Justinian, J.
Inst., 2.1.1-2.1.6 at 55 (P. Birks & G. McLeod trans. 1987). The
Justinian Institutes form the roots of what is known in the U.S. as the
public trust doctrine, a doctrine which has been much disputed in the
American legal community in recent years.
This right exists regardless of how widely it is recognized, or indeed
whether it is recognized at all. Some rights are socially defined, but
others are "natural." This may sound archaic, but it is also true.
Rights are not simply social constructs; they are the opposite of
wrongs.
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