Water law and the state of emergency

MARTIN, LIBER ALEXIS

Berkeley, CA

Seminario; CSLS Visiting Scholar Series Fall 2015; 2015

CSLS, Berkeley Law, University of California

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 entire paradigm instead of being used politically simply to justify not applying the law and the exercise of extraordinary powers.