Private Water Rights

This book, the first on the law of water in Scotland to be published for more than 100 years, provides a comprehensive account of the rights of landowners with resepct to water that flows through their land.

The book is in three parts. The first part analyses the extent to which water can be subject to ownership. The second considers the ownership of land under water including the effect water can have on the boundaries of land through the doctrines of alluvion and avulsion. The final, and most substantial, part investigates the rights and obligations of landowners regarding water, with a special emphasis on the role of common interest.

The modern law is set against the background of the slow and often uncertain evolution of the rules over many centuries. Each part begins with Roman law before tracing how the law came to be received and developed by the institutional writers and the courts. It finishes with an analysis of the law as we find it today. Comparative reference is made to the law in England, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Quebec and Louisiana.