An Illustration of Legal Development—The Passing of the Doctrine of Riparian Rights

Contemporary with the recent and very rapid industrial development of the United States has been observed an unexampled liberality of juristic thought. Especially has the process of settlement and industrialization of the West been pervaded by certain unusual social and economic influences, and likewise has been comparatively free from that judicial conservatism prevalent during the periods of colonization and settlement of the eastern and central portions of the country. Extremely dynamic forces, finding their origin in the manner of settlement, the physical characteristics of the country, and the personal attributes of the population, readily developed what may be termed specialized forms of social and legal institutions. As economic and political factors have become adjusted and a stable social poise has been approached, some of the diverging branches of the new sociopolitical life of the West have been pruned back to antecedent form, but others have become component parts of a permanent organization. Incident to the perpetuation of an unusual industrial structure, there have come about the development of new legal concepts which have assumed special relation to property rights in natural resources. This was possible only upon the abrogation of common law precedents and the renunciation of doctrines formerly conceded to be fundamental in American practice.