Heinz Klug, Straining the Law: Conflicting Legal Premises and the Governance of Aquatic Resources, 15 Society and Natural Resources 693 (2002).
Abstract
While ecosystems management has been widely accepted as a key to addressing ecological crisis and conflict over aquatic resources, this article argues that the success of this approach may be threatened by the unarticulated assumptions of property rights embedded in the interstices of the law. Drawing on a history of conflict and cooperation in the management of natural resources, the article identifies different ways in which legal premises may be used to advance or retard the implementation of systems of aquatic resource management. Finally, the article calls for a closer understanding, within the law, of the relationship between the biological and ecological characteristics of a particular aquatic resource and the legal rules required to manage it in a sustainable way.
