Great Lakes Law

New Second Edition of Modern Water Law – comprehensive text now includes human right to water

Our new Second Edition of Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public Rights, and Environmental Protections has been published by Foundation Press and is available on Amazon. Co-authored again with Robert Adler, the Jefferson B. and Rita E. Fordham Presidential Dean, and Robin Kundis Craig, the James I. Farr Presidential Endowed Chair of Law, both at the University of Utah College of Law. Modern Water Law provides a comprehensive text to study the range of legal... Read more →

Open Source Property: A Free Casebook

I’m teaching property again this semester and have compiled a new book for my students, Open Source Property: A Free Casebook. As the title describes, the book is available under open source licensing, totally free and public. Students and anyone else can have it at no cost (except for the time and energy downloading a 650-page book) at http://www.greatlakeslaw.org/files/Open_Source_Property_Casebook_Hall.pdf. In 16 chapters, the book covers: 1. Ownership 2. Subject Matter of Property 3. Property in... Read more →

"Water Law" - new book explores private rights and public interests in freshwater

I have a new book out this year – it’s about water law and aptly named “Water Law.” Water Law: Concepts and Insights (full title) is another collaboration with Robin Kundis Craig, the James I. Farr Presidential Endowed Chair of Law, and Robert Adler, the Jefferson B. and Rita E. Fordham Presidential Dean, both at the University of Utah College of Law. (The cover photo of the Detroit River was taken from Belle Isle State... Read more →

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Environmental Prophet

I was inspired and challenged by Ta-Nehisi Coates’ public lecture this week at the University of Detroit Mercy. Based on his most recent book Between the World and Me, winner of the 2015 National Book Award, Coates presented an efficient and highly effective argument that America is based on a false idea of race and built on the plunder of black bodies. Implicit in this living lie and ongoing injustice is “the Dream” – Coates’... Read more →

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is the boldly titled new book from Dan Egan, science reporter extraordinaire at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Egan’s focus is squarely on invasive species and it shapes the book’s outlook on the health and future of the Great Lakes. He could have retold the story of clear-cutting and overfishing, industrial pollution and rivers on fire, which thanks to public outcry and the environmental laws of 1970s, is... Read more →

Border Flows: A Century of the Canadian-American Water Relationship

A healthy and strong community has no need for walls on its borders. Rather, borders should be a place of cooperation and peace for people and the natural environment. A new book, Border Flows: A Century of the Canadian-American Water Relationship, offers a collection of essays about our northern border over time and across the length of the continent. Edited by Lynne Heasley and Daniel Macfarlane, the book has contributions from writers and scholars in... Read more →

Water Without Borders? Canada, the United States & Shared Waters - new book and online resources

Water Without Borders? Canada, the United States & Shared Waters, edited by Emma S. Norman, Alice Cohen, and Karen Bakker, has just been published by the University of Toronto Press. I was honored to contribute a chapter to this excellent volume, “The Great Lakes: A Model of Transboundary Cooperation,” co-authored by Dr. Jamie Linton, a Canadian geographer and historian. The companion website provides an excellent overview of the book: Water Without Borders provides readers with... Read more →

New book announcement - Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public Rights, and Environmental Protections

My new book, Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public Rights, and Environmental Protections, has been published by Foundation Press and is available on Amazon. I was honored to work with two superb co-authors on this book - Robert Adler, Interim Dean and James I. Farr Chair in Law, and Robin Kundis Craig, William H. Leary Professor of Law, both at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public... Read more →

A Compelling Call for a New Water Ethic – Reviewing Cynthia Barnett’s “Blue Revolution”

In “Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis” (Beacon Press), author Cynthia Barnett balances urgency and optimism in describing how our water crisis can be solved with a new water ethic. Barnett’s previous book, “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.” exposed the myth of water abundance and detailed how law, policy, economics, politics, business, and American culture have all contributed to a system of water overuse and abuse. “Blue Revolution” is an... Read more →

The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change: United States and International Aspects

The American Bar Association has just published The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change: United States and International Aspects. This massive volume (just under 900 pages), edited by Michael B. Gerrard and Katrina Fischer Kuh, has twenty-five chapters covering the landscape of legal issues regarding climate change adaptation. Here’s the publisher’s description: The laws that attempt to reduce climate change are well known. But what about laws to deal with the climate change that will... Read more →

Book review - Burning Rivers: Revival of Four Urban-Industrial Rivers that Caught on Fire, by Dr. John Hartig

Remember when rivers catching fire symbolized environmental degradation? I don’t - I was born in 1974, and my generation saw environmental values debated through Styrofoam cups and the spotted owl (rather lame symbols in comparison to a burning river). But the stories of rivers burning became a legendary chapter in the making of environmental law and the growth of political environmentalism. Yet I never understood the complexity of the problem, and the tremendous success in... Read more →

The end of abundance: economic solutions to water scarcity

David Zetland has just released his new book, The End of Abundance: economic solutions to water scarcity. David is an economist by background and focuses on water policy in his Aguanomics blog. His new book examines water policy challenges, most notably the end of water abundance, from an economist’s perspective. David’s preference for market-based solutions to managing water demand makes sense, especially when tempered with mechanisms for fairness and meeting basic human needs. Check out... Read more →

Spectacular new Great Lakes documentary – review of movie Waterlife

Waterlife is an incredible new documentary on the Great Lakes distributed by Bullfrog Films. I had the chance to review the film before its public release, and I highly recommend it. Waterlife is a visually stunning, spectacular, and eye-opening film. It documents both the natural grandeur of the Great Lakes and the brutal insults that the Great Lakes endure. The film shows the rest of the world what a spectacular resource we have in the... Read more →