Water:
Survey of existing commons
management case studies in
4 Phases
• Theory & Law, Hypothesis
• Enclosure
• Case Studies
• Possible Commons Applications
Theory & Law
Opening the flood gates
Torque the Tort?
Tort law is broken down into various distinct
types of "torts", so that a person may sue in
negligence, when somebody has unreasonably
breached a “duty of care” for others' interests
Tort is the law of civil wrongs. Tort law usually
provides people with the rights to compensation
when another person** harms their legally
protected interests
Negligence
• Negligence is a tort which depends on the existence of a breach of
duty of care owed by one person** to another. One well-known
case is Donoghue vs. Stevenson
• The majority of the members of the House of Lords agreed (3-2)
that Mrs. Donoghue had a valid claim, but disagreed as to why
such a claim should exist. Lord MacMillan, thought this should be
treated as a new product liability case. Lord Atkin argued that
the law should recognize a unifying principle that we owe a duty
of reasonable care to our neighbors
** Historical note: In the same year they extended the 14th
Amendment to corporations, the Supreme Court overturned a major
civil rights act. Throughout the U.S., the civil rights of AfricanAmericans were being scaled back in other courts, paving the way
for segregation. In 1938, Justice Hugo Black remarked that of the
cases in which the Supreme Court applied the 14th Amendment
during the first 50 years after Santa Clara vs. Southern Pacific, “less
that one-half of 1% invoked it in protection of the Negroe race, and
more than 50% asked that its benefits be extended to corporations.”
http://www.ecologycenter.org/tfs/lesson.php?id=13480
Breach of Duty
(Law of England)
• In tort, there can be no liability in negligence
unless the claimant establishes both that he or
she was owed a duty of care by the defendant,
and that there has been a “breach of that
duty”
Hypothesis:
If negligence to a “duty of care”
can be established, is
privatization of water
A Breach of that Duty?...
Hypothesis 2
Can such use, if not negligence, be
viewed as an invasion ?
• What rights do we have to it regarding
access, use and its misuse ?
• Would a private entity be an
encroachment that needs our permission?
• And if so, what is the protocol for a
consensus of consent ? (Case Study: L.A. water
supply, Cadillac Desert)
Published on Thursday, June 27, 2002 by
CommonDreams.org
Reclaiming Our Commons by Ralph Nader
• “Bollier reminds the reader that Americans own
•
collectively one third of the surface area of the country
and billions of acres of the outer continental shelf. The
resources are extensive and valuable: huge supplies of
oil, coal, natural gas, uranium, copper, gold, silver,
timber grasslands, water and geothermal energy. The
nation's public land also consists of vast tracts of
wilderness forests, unspoiled coastline, sweeping
prairies, the Rocky Mountains, and dozens of beautiful
rivers, and lakes.” *
* Silent Theft-The Private Plunder of Our Common
Wealth" David Bollier
Nader’s solutions to “criminal
invasions”
• “It’s the double standard. If you are part of the risk
•
you’re going be part of the solution. Mobilize people to
get a simple law in Congress that says, ‘Those in
Congress will no longer have health insurance until all
Americans have similar health insurance.’ ”
In other words, in desperate times such as these how
can one illustrate the impact of negligence to power
unless those insulated from it feel it in their own lives?
Quote taken from interview with Bill Maher in 2007
Enclosure
Trickle Down’s Flood of Opportunity
or
A dam ecological shame
Beware of Water Privatization
http://www.gp.org/ebulletin/2007/2007-june.html
• Water is life and privatization is not in the interest of the
•
•
people. Canada recognizes this danger and recently
passed a bill in the House of Commons to exclude water
from NAFTA.
Council of Canadians supports vote to exclude water
from NAFTA The Council of Canadians congratulates all
members of parliament who voted to exclude water from
the North American Free Trade Agreement on June 05,
2007.
The motion was passed in the House of Commons by a
vote of 134 to 108. Tabled by the Standing Committee
on International Trade, the motion recommends that the
Federal government "begin talks with its American and
Mexican counterparts to exclude water from the scope of
NAFTA."
Case Studies:
Commons Rising
Is the tide turning?
The Great Lakes Center for Public Policy is
promoting a Water Bill of Rights for the People of
the Great Lakes Basin:
• 1. Water is Life.
• 2. Water has value. Water is more valuable than oil.
• 3. Water in the Great Lakes Basin is finite and in
•
•
•
balance. Water diverted out of the basin is gone forever,
there is a net loss.
4. The waters of the Great Lakes and the groundwater of
the Great Lakes Basin are contiguous.
5. Water belongs to the citizens, creatures and ecosystems of the Great Lakes Basin.
6. Water is in continuous motion. Water moves through
a hydrologic cycle, from lakes to the air to precipitation
to the land to groundwater and runoff to streams and
rivers, and back to lakes and seas.
• 7. Water of the Great Lakes Basin cannot be privately owned.
• 8. All public and private interests shall take note. Water needs,
•
•
•
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outside the Great Lakes Basin, which are created by squandering
water resources or diminishing water reservoirs or polluting water or
by creating water dependant industry, farming and residential need,
or created by growing populations, cannot be cited as constituting
compelling need for Great Lakes Basin Water diversion.
9. Anyone who diverts or takes or removes water from the Great
Lakes Basin, takes the property of the people of the state and other
citizens of the Great Lakes Basin. Any diversion of the water of the
Great Lakes Basin from the Basin diminishes all life in the Basin.
10. Any person or corporation that pollutes or diminishes the quality
of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin is guilty of a trespass and
destruction of public property. Pollution or diminishment of the
water constitutes a taking.
11. Water diversion or sale of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin
for private profit constitutes a taking or theft from the people.
12. The elected representatives of the state have a right and a
responsibility to protect the citizens of the Great Lakes Basin by
protecting the waters of the Great Lakes Basin from pollution,
diversion or taking for profit.
For more information on Great Lakes Basin contact JoAnne Bier Beemon,
Director Great Lakes Center for Public Policy at:
joanne_beemon@hotmail.com
World Prout Assembly
Economy of the People, For the People and By the People!
Put Economic Power in the Hands of the People!
Moralists of the world - unite!
• http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archiv
es/2005/10/water_privatiza_1.html
• http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archiv
es/2006/02/indian_water_ac.html
“Taming the Giant”:
Emphasis denotes Infrastructure
• "Think of how we could improve our tap-water
infrastructure if we took the money spent on
bottled water and spent it on our public water
systems."
Wenonah Hauter, Director of Food and Water
Watch
• http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070702/nader
Possible Commons
Applications
Staying afloat
Place-based system* of
Accountability:
Adopt a river
• Much like the Adopt a highway concept (Yet rivers and
•
•
*
their contaminants are not as fixed in space as a
highway)
Small groups could create a cooperative and adopt a
section of the water way which is the source of their
residential, industrial and commercial livelihood
Group size determined by “Dunbar Number” theory **
Coast Salish
** “150…the limit imposed by neocortical processing capacity is simply on the number
of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained."
Robin Dunbar, anthropologist and evolutionary biologist
** http://www.dennisfox.net/papers/commons.html "Psychology, Ideology, Utopia, &
the Commons"
Existing Commons
Management
Index of resources
• http://217.154.120.06/CABDirect/show•
•
•
results.nsp?var_once=true&query0=managemen
t+of+the+commons&sortfield=NONE
http://www.answers.com/topic/tragedy-of-thecommons?cat=technology
http://www.answers.com/topic/coase-theorem
http://law.gsu.edu/wedmundson/Syllabi/Coase.h
tm
Preliminary Lit review:
● Psychology, Ideology, Utopia & the Commons
Dennis Fox
• Capitalism 3.0 Peter Barnes
• Water Wars Vandana Shiva
● Cadillac Desert Mark Reisner
● Ecology of Commerce, Natural Capitalism,
Blessed Unrest Paul Hawken
● Sustainable Communities Sym Van Der Ryn
● Ecological Democracy Roy Morrison
● Every Drop For Sale Jeffrey Rothfeder