Course

Water Rights and Contemporary Policy - LAWS8235

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:

Prerequisite: Academic Program must be either 9200 or 9210 or 5740 or 9230 or 9231 or 5231 or 9220 or 5750 or 8619 or 5499 or 7339.

Excluded: JURD7835

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

Water is essential to the survival of the planet but it is a limited global resource. Therefore, how we manage it is of critical importance. Australian water law and regulation has been innovative in recent years with the market being employed as a key tool of sharing water scarcity and abundance. The Australian experience has been carefully monitored internationally and is often held up as a positive model. Australian reforms have involved extensive overhauls of state-based legislation and the introduction of significant Commonwealth ‘framework’ legislation. The reforms also incorporated a high level of participatory and consultative governance along with a key role for planning.

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.

This course is also available to students enrolled in the Master of Environmental Management (8619), Graduate Diploma in Environmental Management (5499) and the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Management (7339).

This course is also available to students undertaking relevant postgraduate non-law degree programs at UNSW provided such enrolment is approved by the appopriate non-law Faculty.


LLM Specialisations

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

The objective of this course is to provide students with a basic knowledge and understanding of both the substantive and policy aspects of Water Law. The course examines the basic objectives and principles underlying water management and includes an examination and critique of their effectiveness.

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
Gardner A, Bartlett R and Gray J, Water Resources Law, LexisNexis, Sydney, 2009

Recommended
none

Law Books

Study Levels

UNSW Quick Links