Water is a limited global resource. Lack of it impacts on agriculture, health and the environment to name but a few areas. Accordingly, there are important issues regarding whether water should simply be owned privately, as a concomitant of the rights in land held by the owner of a fee simple estate, or alternatively, whether it should be the subject of major state intervention (intervention which has taken place in NSW, for example) designed to regulate its use in order to achieve the optimum balance of equity and environmental prudence. This course will examine some of the diverse questions and issues relevant to both stakeholders and the wider community, including: Is it useful to seek a characterisation of rights in water as proprietary and why? What are the different types of water that need to be managed and how has water been managed historically? Who presently owns water and on what basis? What legislation regulates water management in NSW and how successful is it in achieving its purpose? How can water be traded? How might Australia's international legal obligations impact on water management? Are there better alternatives? How should the interests of stakeholders be reflected in legal reforms?