The Public Trust Doctrine, Private Rights in Water, and the Mono Lake Story
Lecture by RCC Fellow Erin Ryan
10.07.2019 13:00 – 14:00
Speaker: Erin Ryan (Florida State University)
Location: RCC, Leopoldstraße 11a, 4th Floor Conference Room (room number 415)
This talk recounts the epic tale of the fall and rise of Mono Lake—the strange and beautiful Dead Sea of California—which fostered some of the most important environmental law developments of the last century, and has become a platform for equally critical developments in the new one. It recounts the history and legacy of the California Supreme Court's 1983 decision to protect Mono's environmental values under the public trust doctrine, a decision that spawned a quiet revolution throughout U.S. environmental law, and to nations as far distant as India.
The Mono Lake dispute pitted advocates for the local ecosystem against proponents of water exports to thirsty Los Angelinos 400 miles south. The legal controversy spanned decades, but the story leading to litigation stretches back more than a hundred years, adding depth and dimension to the tale that is easily missed on a casual reading of the case alone. It is a case study on the challenges and possibilities for balancing legitimate needs for public infrastructure and economic development with competing environmental values, all within systems of law that are still evolving to manage these conflicts.