Water Rights & Contemporary Policy - JURD7835
Faculty: Faculty of Law
School: Faculty of Law
Course Outline: See below
Campus: Sydney
Career: Postgraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2
Enrolment Requirements:
Pre-requisite: 36 UOC of JURD courses for students enrolled prior to 2013. For students enrolled after 2013, pre-requisite: 72 UOC of JURD courses.
Excluded: LAWS8235
CSS Contribution Charge: 2 (more info)
Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule
Further Information: See Class Timetable
View course information for previous years.
Description
Accordingly the course considers a range of legal issues. They include: significant constitutional issues (will state or federal law prevail?); property law issues (is a water access licence property?); commercial law issues (how is the market to be regulated and how do international trade treaties impact on domestic law?); human rights issues (how is the human right to water to be reconciled with the market and trading?); environmental law issues (are the desired sustainability outcomes being achieved by the present legal and regulatory framework?) ; Indigenous law issues (how is Indigenous access to water to operate in the light of more general restrictions of access to water?). Although the course will focus mainly on New South Wales and Commonwealth legislation it will also include international comparative material from which lessons may be learnt. It is a very topical course and is very relevant to those with an interest in ecological sustainability.
Recommended Prior Knowledge
Course Objectives
Main Topics
- The significance of water and why it needs to be managed and regulated
- The history of water law in NSW
- Legislation regulating water use with a key focus on the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW)
- The protection of Aboriginal interests in relation to water
- The commodification and trading of water both domestically and internationally
- The perspectives of the various stakeholders and the nexus between policy and law
- City water regulation (cf rural water)
- Water regulation in other jurisdictions
Assessment
Class participation | Preparation and engagement in class | 20% |
Oral presentation | 20% | |
Research paper | 6,500 words (max.) | 60% |
Course Texts
Prescribed
Materials for the course have been prepared by the lecturer in charge and will be for sale in the UNSW bookshop. All students are expected to buy them. A more detailed schedule of allocated readings will be distributed to students once the course commences.
Recommended
None