Development of the Appropriation Docterine: Adapting Water Allcoation Policies to Semiarid Environs

One hallmark of economic development, and indeed of civilization itself, may be found in the rules men devise to order their access to resources. When ambitious men began to develop the West, they found English common law deficient in many respects. It failed to provide workable rules among men as they struggled to get, develop, and use water where water was relatively scarce and often vital to life itself. So new laws and new institutions had to be developed. They are still developing.