Westernriverlaw is devoted to legal and policy issues affecting rivers and water resources in the western United States. Its primary focus is on the interplay between traditional water allocation and management regimes–prior appropriation, interstate compacts, reclamation statutes, and the like–and 21st century priorities such as environmental conservation and river recreation. Westernriverlaw considers the legal dimensions of these issues, but also examines policies, practices, and values affecting rivers in the West.
Westernriverlaw is a project of Reed D. Benson, a law professor who has been involved with water issues in several parts of the West, and currently lives and teaches in New Mexico. After starting his career as a water attorney with a private firm in Colorado, he spent ten years working for conservation groups (mostly in Oregon), and became a law professor in 2002. Some of his many articles on western water law and policy may be found on his SSRN page, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1313680
Reed is also a devoted river lover, with 20 years’ experience in kayaking.
westernriverlaw 