Water: Survey of existing commons management case studies in 4 Phases

1. Water: Survey of existing commons management case studies in 4 Phases • Theory & Law, Hypothesis • Enclosure • Case Studies • Possible Commons Applications

2. Theory & Law Opening the flood gates

3. 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 Torque the Tort?

4. 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 African-Americans 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

5. 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”

6. Hypothesis:If negligence to a “duty of care” can be established, is privatization of water A Breach of that Duty?...

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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

10. Enclosure Trickle Down’s Flood of Opportunity or A dam ecological shame

11. Beware of Water Privatizationhttp://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."

12. Case Studies:Commons Rising Is the tide turning?

13. 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 eco-systems 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.

14. 7. Water of the Great Lakes Basin cannot be privately owned. 8. All public and private interests shall take note. Water needs, 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

15. World Prout AssemblyEconomy 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/archives/2005/10/water_privatiza_1.html • http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2006/02/indian_water_ac.html

16. “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

17. Possible Commons Applications Staying afloat

18. 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"

19. Existing Commons ManagementIndex of resources • http://217.154.120.06/CABDirect/show-results.nsp?var_once=true&query0=management+of+the+commons&sortfield=NONE • http://www.answers.com/topic/tragedy-of-the-commons?cat=technology • http://www.answers.com/topic/coase-theorem • http://law.gsu.edu/wedmundson/Syllabi/Coase.htm

20. 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