Traditional water rights, ecology and the public trust doctrine in Hawaii

Water Policy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-196
Author(s):  
C. S. Papacostas
Keyword(s):  
Water Rights ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
The State ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Trust Doctrine ◽  
Subsurface Waters ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of

This case study discusses the implications of imposing the doctrine of public trust to ground and surface waters within the State of Hawaii and its effects on traditional rights that had previously evolved based on common law. It traces the major events of the history of water rights and practices beginning with the system devised by the indigenous Hawaiian people prior to the adoption of the doctrine of public trust to the water resources of the State of Hawaii, applied with the most expansive interpretation of the public trust doctrine, encompassing both surface and subsurface waters and a wide assortment of protected uses and purposes. The major decisions that ensued when applying the doctrine, via legal prescriptions and administrative rules, are described. The implications of the interplay between scientific enquiry and research are presented, with legal precedent in the face of potential water shortages, competing uses, sensitivities to comprehensive resource management, considerations of ecological balance and protection of the rights of indigenous people. Many of these findings are transferable to other jurisdictions contemplating the adoption of public trust doctrine principles to their surface and ground waters.

scholarly journals Owens Valley and the Public Trust

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-85
Author(s):  
Graham Chisholm
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Migratory Birds ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Mono Lake ◽  
Owens Valley ◽  
The Public ◽  
Owens Lake ◽  
Public Trust Doctrine ◽  
History Of ◽  
Important Habitat

This essay explores the history of the public trust doctrine for water in California, established in the battle of preserving Mono Lake, and extends the concept to include the responsibility Los Angeles has to restore Owens Lake, an important habitat for migratory birds.

scholarly journals Water and the public trust doctrine – a South African perspective

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmarie Van der Schyff ◽  
Germarie Viljoen
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Trust Doctrine ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
Legislative Measures ◽  
National Water

The legal principles concerning rights to water have been changed considerably by the provisions of the National Water Act 36 of 1998. The National Water Act aims to redistribute water rights to previously disadvantaged people and communities by the introduction and application of a public trust doctrine to South African natural resources law. It is proposed that these legislative measures will ensure that water as a natural resource will be used to the benefit of the nation as a whole. However, the practical application of the public trust doctrine needs to be analysed, especially with the view of determining the actual benefits to poor and deprived people.

scholarly journals Falun Gong: The End of Days. By MARIA HSIA CHANG. [New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 188 pp. $25.00; £16.99. ISBN 0-300-10227-5.]

2005 ◽  
Vol 181 ◽  
pp. 181-183
Author(s):  
David A. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Chinese Religion ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Secret Societies ◽  
Falun Gong ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese Religions ◽  
Media Reports

Since 1999, falun gong has been one of the most burning and sensitive political and religious issues in China, brought to the attention of the public around the world by demonstrations and media reports. Until Maria Hsia Chang's book, Falun Gong: The End of Days, was released this spring, no balanced book-length account of the facts surrounding falun gong was available. Chang's book provides the general public with an informative summary of the development of falun gong, its basic beliefs, the history of its repression by the Chinese state, and its connection with millenarian and sectarian traditions in Chinese religious history. However, the journalistic style and sources of the book underline the need for a thorough academic study of the phenomenon.Chapter one, “A religious sect defies the state,” outlines the story of falun gong from its foundation in 1992 to its continued repression today following the Zhongnanhai demonstration of 1999. In chapter two, “Chinese religions and millenarian movements,” Chang summarizes the history of Chinese religions, secret societies, and millennial and apocalyptic movements, including the Eight Trigram, Taiping and Boxer rebellions, and argues that the Chinese Communists tapped into China's millenarian tradition in order to gain power. She then stresses that falun gong, contrary to its claims that it is not a religion, draws heavily from Chinese religion, and particularly its millennial and apocalyptic strands. Falun gong teachings are described in chapter three, “Beliefs and practices,” in which falun gong's cosmology, theology and eschatology are outlined with ample reference to the writings of Li Hongzhi. The next chapter, “The state vs. falun gong,” goes through the Chinese state's charges against falun gong. Chapter five, “The persecution of other faiths,” begins with a critique of the “rule of law” purportedly called on by the CCP to deal with falun gong, and argues that the accusations made against falun gong could just as well be made against the CCP itself. It then discusses the vast social dislocations in contemporary China that create a fertile soil for the emergence of apocalyptic movements such as falun gong, and describes how the persecution of falun gong is part of a larger policy to eradicate underground religious groups, several of which are presented. Finally, Chang concludes that, in the face of widespread social dissatisfaction, the fear of millenarian uprisings is the main motivation for the CCP's fierce suppression of falun gong – but its intolerance of “heterodox” faiths only reinforces their politicization into oppositional movements, increasing the likelihood of the CCP “reaping the fate” it so dreads.

Land, History, and the Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-128
Author(s):  
Susan Y. Najita
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Park ◽  
Rift Zone ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lava Flows ◽  
Land Acquisition ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Trust Doctrine ◽  
History Of

This essay examines the history of land acquisition in creating Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park during the period after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the annexation of the islands to the United States. Its specific focus are the land condemnations and exchanges that went into creating what is known as the Kalapana Extension, an area of active lava flows along the area known as the East Rift Zone. I examine the implications of this history for our understanding of "the public" and conservation’s best legal principal, the public trust doctrine.

Mono Lake and the Evolving Public Trust in Western Water

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Blumm ◽  
Thea Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Water Rights ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Mono Lake ◽  
Water Law ◽  
Conceptual Coherence ◽  
The Public ◽  
California Water ◽  
Public Trust Doctrine

The Mono Lake case is a lodestar in public trust jurisprudence. This article discusses that case and explains how it revolutionized California water law. The article identifies six principles established by the decision that place it in the vanguard of public trust case law. It also examines some of the progeny of the Mono Lake decision, both in California and in other western states. The article claims that in the wake of Mono Lake, a half dozen western states have recognized the application of the public trust doctrine to water rights, although no other state has embraced all six of the tenets of the Mono Lake doctrine. The article concludes that the the public trust doctrine's deep historical roots and conceptual coherence make it a promising vehicle by which to moderate the excesses of the prior appropriation doctrine of western water law and replace that doctrine's "all or nothing" approach with what the article refers to as the "accommodation principle," under which both diversionary and instream uses of water will be accommodated wherever feasible.

La valorisation des prestations non-bois: particularités genevoises (essai) | Commercialization of non-wood forest services: the case of Geneva (essay)

2009 ◽  
Vol 160 (8) ◽  
pp. 232-234
Author(s):  
Patrik Fouvy
Keyword(s):  
Forest Regeneration ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
The State ◽  
Forest Land ◽  
Private Forests ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Body ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
History Of ◽  
Near Future

The history of the forests in canton Geneva, having led to these being disconnected from productive functions, provides a symptomatic demonstration that the services provided by the forest eco-system are common goods. Having no hope of financial returns in the near future and faced with increasing social demands, the state has invested in the purchase of forest land, financed projects for forest regeneration and improvement of biological diversity and developed infrastructures for visitors. In doing this the state as a public body takes on the provision of services in the public interest. But the further funding for this and for expenses for the private forests, which must be taken into account, are not secured for the future.

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