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Origins of Common-Law Restrictions on Water Transfers: Groundwater Law in Nineteenth-Century California

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  • Mark Kanazawa

Abstract

Despite the fact that court-mandated restrictions on voluntary transfers of water are common throughout the western United States, we currently lack a good economic understanding of the historical origins of many of those restrictions. In nineteenth-century California, groundwater law evolved from an initial regime of virtually no legal restrictions on transfers to one of significant restrictions after the turn of the century. This doctrinal shift was given partial impetus by increasing scientific understanding of groundwater flows, which was reflected in increasingly sophisticated court rulings. However, it was a dramatic deterioration in groundwater conditions in southern California around the turn of the century that triggered a significant change in the court treatment of groundwater transfers. This deterioration resulted from drought conditions and a secular expansion in irrigated agriculture during the 1890s and major technological improvements that made large-scale groundwater pumping increasingly economical.

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  • Mark Kanazawa, 2003. "Origins of Common-Law Restrictions on Water Transfers: Groundwater Law in Nineteenth-Century California," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(1), pages 153-180, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:v:32:y:2003:p:153-180
    DOI: 10.1086/368010
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mark T. Kanazawa, 2019. "Transaction Costs in Water Transfers: The issue of local control," Working Papers 2019-01, Carleton College, Department of Economics.
    2. Lueck, Dean & Miceli, Thomas J., 2007. "Property Law," Handbook of Law and Economics, in: A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), Handbook of Law and Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 183-257, Elsevier.
      • Dean Lueck & Thomas J. Miceli, 2004. "Property Law," Working papers 2004-04, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    3. Jeffrey A. Edwards & Tara R. Wade & Mark L. Burkey & R. Gary Pumphrey, 2014. "Forecasting the Public's Acceptability of Municipal Water Regulation and Price Rationing for Communities on the Ogallala Aquifer," Journal of Economic Insight, Missouri Valley Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 1-30.

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