Who Owns Water?
- This is a past program
Throughout 2015 the Hammer and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) explore the most pressing issues surrounding the current and future state of water in our series The Next Wave. Learn more about The Next Wave.
California laws determining ownership of groundwater are a convoluted tangle rooted in England’s common law. With the drought and other supply constrictors as a backdrop, a dynamic panel of experts illuminates who owns this necessity, why, and the ramifications. Buzz Thompson, founding director of Stanford Law School’s Environmental and Natural Resources Program; Linda Sheehan, executive director of the Earth Law Center; and Eric L. Garner, the first American to chair the International Bar Association’s Water Law Committee, will discuss potential solutions to this Gordian knot of legal constraints. Mark Gold, UCLA associate vice chancellor for environment and sustainability, moderates.
All Hammer public programs are free and made possible by a major gift from the Dream Fund at UCLA.
Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy, Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley, an anonymous donor, and all Hammer members.
The Hammer’s digital presentation of its public programs is made possible by the Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Foundation.
