Drought, Water Law and the State of Emergency in a Comparative Approach

MARTIN, LIBER ALEXIS

San Francisco

Workshop; Water law responses to drought; 2015

Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC)

This paper focus on drought and critically addresses emergency regulations in a comparative approach drawing from the study cases of Argentina, Chile, Spain, United States and Australia. The hypothesis that guide this research is that emergency regulations tend to become permanent despite being (in theory and by definition) temporary or exceptional driving water law and policy into a state of exception. I argue here that droughts are normal rather than exceptional or catastrophic and should be taken seriously as a departing point for framing water law and policy reforms into a new sustainable and democratic paradigm.