Colorado Doctrine: Water Rights, Corporations, and Distributive Justice on the American Frontier

Making extensive use of archival and other primary sources, David Schorr demonstrates that the development of the and#8220;appropriation doctrine,and#8221; a system of private rights in water, was part of a radical attack on monopoly and corporate power in the arid West. Schorr describes how Colorado miners, irrigators, lawmakers, and judges forged a system of private property in water based on a desire to spread property and its benefits as widely as possible among independent citizens. and#160;He demonstrates that ownership was not dictated by concerns for economic efficiency, but by a regard for social justice.

"Schorr draws upon his meticulous research into documents from the early Colorado mining camps and nascent territorial and state water law." and#8212;Water History

David Schorr is senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University, where he chairs the Law and Environment Program at the Faculty of Law.