How does the law provide for the management and sharing of water resources between competing human consumptive uses while also sustaining our natural ecosystems? This question has garnered growing national attention as water becomes an increasingly contested resource in much of Australia, with recent periods of dire scarcity likely to return with the emergent impacts of climate change and increasing demands from new industry practices, especially the pursuit of energy resources.  Australian attention to these issues in the past two decades has seen the Australian State and Commonwealth Parliaments agree a national water reform policy and undertake a national program of fundamental law reform – the most significant reform since water resources statutes were first enacted over a century ago. The Australian model of water resources law is gaining international attention as globally too water is becoming an increasingly contested and scarce resource.

This course pursues these themes through a study of Australian terrestrial water resources law, with a focus on the Murray-Darling Basin (“MDB”) jurisdictions, including the Commonwealth, and an emphasis on water quantity management.  The Australian law of terrestrial water resources management was founded on the often-unsuitable common law principles inherited from England.  It has undergone two major transitions through State legislative reforms; the first at the end of the nineteenth century and the second at the end of the twentieth century through the implementation of national water policy agreements made by the Council of Australian Governments ("CoAG"); namely, the 1994 Water Reform Framework Agreement and the 2004 "National Water Initiative".  In the grip of awful drought, the Australian Parliament, led by Governments of both major parties, enacted   and amended the Water Act 2007-08 (Cth), the first significant Commonwealth water resources legislation with substantive effect.  Since then, much attention has been focused on preparing the MDB Basin Plan, even in the face of recent awful floods. Another huge issue has also surfaced: the impact of mining and coal seam gas extraction on water resources is capturing both State and Commonwealth attention.

The implementation of national water policy means that water resources law, although largely State based, has common streams of legal principle that flow through the various States' legal regimes and the new Water Act (Cth).  The course addresses those principles under the following six topics, which are considered at a three days intensive workshop:

• The Institutional Framework of water resources management, including the classification and condition of Australia's water resources, key constitutional principles and administrative agencies, and the statutory objectives of water resources management;
• The Nature of Access Rights to Water, including the legal foundations of the access rights to water, their historical basis in the common law and current statutory public and private rights to the use and flow and control of surface and ground water;
• Water Allocation Planning, including the history and legal purposes of planning, the main procedures of the planning system, and the core content of water plans relating to environmental water allocations and the concept of "consumptive pool";
• Administration of Statutory Water Entitlements, including the grant, content, variation and compensation for reduction of access entitlements;
• Water trading, including intra and inter-State transfer provisions, public register of entitlements, and environmental water trade; and
• The model for sharing water resources in Australia

At the conclusion of this course students should be able to:

• understand and explain the main legal principles governing the management of water resources in their own jurisdictions and make some comparisons with other jurisdictions;
• ascertain the legal effect of the national water policy reforms agreed by CoAG and implemented by State and Commonwealth legislation;
• identify and use the principal legal and policy materials applied in the management of water resources in their own jurisdiction; and
•  comment critically on the law and policy relevant to a particular problem of water resources management that was the focus of the research assignment.

The scheme of assessment is expected to be two compulsory assessment exercises;

• a presentation at the workshop on a question chosen from a prescribed list, usually relating to an important case, institution or principle, and based on a 1000 words essay prepared before the workshop – worth 20%; and
• a research assignment undertaken in a period of 6 weeks after the workshop on a question of the student's choice in consultation with the lecturer, up to 5000 words – worth 80%.

Students must rely on the Approved Assessment which will be posted to the Wattle course site, prior to the commencement of the course.

The three days intensive course is the only commitment of class time.  Students will need to manage their own time to prepare the workshop presentation, as well as to undertake the research assignment after the workshop.  In addition to completing these assignments, students should also commit some time to general reading for the course, especially before the workshop. 

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LAWS8189 / LAWS8201 Fundamentals of Environmental Law (non-lawyers)

A Gardner, R Bartlett & J Gray, Water Resources Law, LexisNexis 2009.

A reading guide will be available on the WATTLE site at the commencement of the course, approximately six weeks before the intensive workshop commences.

Students must have access to WATTLE to complete the compulsory assessment.

What students have said:

Student comments on the course in previous years.

“Alex was so organized and provided very useful handouts to the course.  I was impressed by Alex’s responsiveness and assistance provided prior to the course.  Although the cost of the text book is a little prohibitive, it is an excellent resource and probably more useful in the long term than a [reading] brick.  I really appreciated Alex’s dedication and preparation for the course, which was obvious.  It’s definitely one of the best courses I’ve done in my Master’s degree.”

“The way we worked closely with the book was brilliant and really helped the learning process, and importantly results in us actually reading most if not all of the book. Incredibly well organized.  Excellent style of teaching, clearly knowledgeable.  Creates a forum for discussion.  The pre-workshop assessment allows us to begin learning early and results in a class full of better prepared and informed students.  Best course so far in the degree.”