Agricultural Development and the Water Rights in California, 1850-1887
1991 Volume 34 Issue 1 Pages 36-50
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1991 Volume 34 Issue 1 Pages 36-50
When we consider the agricultural development of far west, it is very important to inquire into acquistion of water for irrigation as well as land disposal. California was no exception. The early development of California complicated the problems of water rights afterwards. In other words, as gold mining was the leading industry in California economy in its frontier stage, water rights developed for their benefit accordingly. It was called the "Appropriation Rights". The first user of a river acquired the right of utilization prior to others, and the user was not always required to become the landowner of the riparian land. In addition, the first man who introduced the water from the river could change the water course freely. While this rule was convenient for the gold miners, it was against the principle of "Common Law" which had been accepted as the state law. The water rights founded on the principle of common law was called "Riparian Rights". This ruled that only the owner of the land along a river had the right of use to the river water.
The California courts expressed special judgment on the two water rights which were fundamentally inconsistent with one another and protected the right facilitating economic development and restrained the right injuring it. The court recognized appropriation rights in the heyday of mining industry. Then, it began to adhere to riparian rights in order to restrain mining as agriculture became a main industry. But with the development of irrigated agriculture, riparian rights came to the front as a serious obstacle to the development of California, Lux v. Hegain case was a typical case and by means of recognizing eminent-domain law, the court intended to restrain riparian rights.
The court thus gave a great influence to the economic developmet of California through the above judgments. Consequently, the state of California was able to have a full-scale irrigation act in 1887 and the economic development of the state entered into a new stage since then.
