Legal Rights For Rivers: Competition, Collaboration And Water Governance (earthscan Studies In Water Resource Management)

Présentation de l'éditeur : "In 2017 four rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand, India, and Colombia were given the status of legal persons, and there was a recent attempt to extend these rights to the Colorado River in the USA. Understanding the implications of creating legal rights for rivers is an urgent challenge for both water resource management and environmental law. Giving rivers legal rights means the law can see rivers as legal persons, thus creating new legal rights which can then be enforced. When rivers are legally people, does that encourage collaboration and partnership between humans and rivers, or establish rivers as another competitor for scarce resources? To assess what it means to give rivers legal rights and legal personality, this book examines the form and function of environmental water managers (EWMs). These organisations have legal personality, and have been active in water resource management for over two decades. EWMs operate by acquiring water rights from irrigators in rivers where there is insufficient water to maintain ecological health. EWMs can compete with farmers for access to water, but they can also strengthen collaboration between traditionally divergent users of the aquatic environment, such as environmentalists, recreational fishers, hunters, farmers, and hydropower. This book explores how EWMs use the opportunities created by giving nature legal rights, such as the ability to participate in markets, enter contracts, hold property, and enforce those rights in court. However, examination of the EWMs unearths a crucial and unexpected paradox: giving legal rights to nature may increase its legal power, but in doing so it can weaken community support for protecting the environment in the first place. The book develops a new conceptual framework to identify the multiple constructions of the environment in law, and how these constructions can interact to generate these unexpected outcomes. It explores EWMs in the USA and Australia as examples, and assesses the implications of creating legal rights for rivers for water governance. Lessons from the EWMs, as well as early lessons from the new 'river persons,' show how to use the law to improve river protection and how to begin to mitigate the problems of the paradox." Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of Figures 9 List of Tables 10 List of Acronyms and Abbreviations 11 1 Introduction 12 Constructing the environment in law: a new conceptual framework 13 Environmental water managers: a useful example of legal personality 16 Definitions and terminology 19 Case studies 21 Conclusion 22 Notes 23 2 Constructing the environment in law: making it count 26 Constructing the environment in ‘modern’ environmental law 27 Cultural narratives and the construction of the environment in law 38 Constructing the environment in law: a conceptual framework 42 Notes 43 3 Environmental water managers: examples of indirect legal personhood for rivers 48 The environment in water law: a transition from object to subject 49 Environmental water managers 55 Constructing the aquatic environment as a legal subject 57 Two case studies: a brief overview of methodology 64 Conclusion 66 Notes 68 4 Just another user: environmental water managers in Australia 72 South-eastern Australia: the Murray-Darling Basin and southern Victoria 73 Water law in south-eastern Australia 73 Constructing the aquatic environment in Australian water law 76 The environmental water managers of south-eastern Australia 81 Operation of the EWMs: recovery and management 88 Conclusion 97 Notes 98 5 Partnership as success: the environmental water managers of the western USA 103 Water law in the western USA 107 Constructing the aquatic environment in western USA water law 111 The environmental water managers of the western USA 117 Conclusion 133 Notes 134 6 Competing narratives and the paradox of the environmental water managers 139 Legal power and the ability to use it 140 Competing narratives and ‘off-limits’ legal powers 155 Fear of a legally powerful organisation representing the aquatic environment 159 The paradox of legal personhood 162 Notes 164 7 Rivers as legal persons: competition and collaboration 169 Legal rights for rivers: an idea whose time has come 170 Whanganui River, Aotearoa New Zealand 172 Ganga and Yamuna Rivers, India 176 Río Atrato, Colombia 181 Legal rights for rivers: implications for water governance 185 Lessons from the EWMs for the rivers 189 Notes 189 8 Legal rights for rivers: a cause for celebration or concern? 194 How this book helps to answer the question: should rivers have rights? 195 A new way of understanding the environment in water law and governance 196 The paradox of legal rights 199 Resolving the paradox: lessons from the EWMs and rivers with legal rights 202 Conclusion 205 Notes 207 Index 210 Présentation de l'éditeur : "In 2017 four rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand, India, and Colombia were given the status of legal persons, and there was a recent attempt to extend these rights to the Colorado River in the USA. Understanding the implications of creating legal rights for rivers is an urgent challenge for both water resource management and environmental law. Giving rivers legal rights means the law can see rivers as legal persons, thus creating new legal rights which can then be enforced. When rivers are legally people, does that encourage collaboration and partnership between humans and rivers, or establish rivers as another competitor for scarce resources? To assess what it means to give rivers legal rights and legal personality, this book examines the form and function of environmental water managers (EWMs). These organisations have legal personality, and have been active in water resource management for over two decades. EWMs operate by acquiring water rights from irrigators in rivers where there is insufficient water to maintain ecological health. EWMs can compete with farmers for access to water, but they can also strengthen collaboration between traditionally divergent users of the aquatic environment, such as environmentalists, recreational fishers, hunters, farmers, and hydropower. This book explores how EWMs use the opportunities created by giving nature legal rights, such as the ability to participate in markets, enter contracts, hold property, and enforce those rights in court. However, examination of the EWMs unearths a crucial and unexpected paradox: giving legal rights to nature may increase its legal power, but in doing so it can weaken community support for protecting the environment in the first place. The book develops a new conceptual framework to identify the multiple constructions of the environment in law, and how these constructions can interact to generate these unexpected outcomes. It explores EWMs in the USA and Australia as examples, and assesses the implications of creating legal rights for rivers for water governance. Lessons from the EWMs, as well as early lessons from the new 'river persons,' show how to use the law to improve river protection and how to begin to mitigate the problems of the paradox." In 2017 four rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand, India, and Colombia were given the status of legal persons, and there was a recent attempt to extend these rights to the Colorado River in the USA. Understanding the implications of creating legal rights for rivers is an urgent challenge for both water resource management and environmental law. Giving rivers legal rights means the law can see rivers as legal persons, thus creating new legal rights which can then be enforced. When rivers are legally people, does that encourage collaboration and partnership between humans and rivers, or establish rivers as another competitor for scarce resources? To assess what it means to give rivers legal rights and legal personality, this book examines the form and function of environmental water managers (EWMs). These organisations have legal personality, and have been active in water resource management for over two decades. EWMs operate by acquiring water rights from irrigators in rivers where there is insufficient water to maintain ecological health. EWMs can compete with farmers for access to water, but they can also strengthen collaboration between traditionally divergent users of the aquatic environment, such as environmentalists, recreational fishers, hunters, farmers, and hydropower. This book explores how EWMs use the opportunities created by giving nature legal rights, such as the ability to participate in markets, enter contracts, hold property, and enforce those rights in court. However, examination of the EWMs unearths a crucial and unexpected paradox: giving legal rights to nature may increase its legal power, but in doing so it can weaken community support for protecting the environment in the first place. The book develops a new conceptual framework to identify the multiple constructions of the environment in law, and how these constructions can interact to generate these unexpected outcomes. It explores EWMs in the USA and Australia as examples, and assesses the implications of creating legal rights for rivers for water governance. Lessons from the EWMs, as well as early lessons from the new 'river persons,' show how to use the law to improve river protection and how to begin to mitigate the problems of the paradox. -- Publisher description Introduction -- Constructing The Environment In Law: Making It Count -- Environmental Water Managers: Examples Of Indirect Legal Personhood For Rivers -- Just Another User : Environmental Water Managers In Australia -- Partnership As Success: The Ewms Of The Western Usa -- Competing Narratives And The Paradox Of The Ewms -- Rivers As Legal Persons : Competition And Collaboration -- Legal Rights For Rivers : A Cause For Celebration Or Concern?. Erin O'donnell. Based On Author's Thesis (doctoral - Melbourne Law School, University Of Melbourne, 2017) Issued Under Title: Constructing The Aquatic Environment As A Legal Subject : Legal Rights, Market Participation, And The Power Of Narrative. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Four rivers, in New Zealand, India and Colombia, have recently been given the status of legal persons. To assess what it means to give rivers legal rights and legal personality, this book examines the form and function of environmental water managers, organizations with legal personality, using the USA and Australia as examples.