Global Perspectives on the Emergence of Water Rights

在西方法律的制度中，水权的演变似乎 遵循管理制度的各个阶段，从开放获取到 从公共控制到专属使用 这种进展发生在 水资源丰富地区的消费量增加。 虽然 这种模式的经验和理论支持，到目前为止， 观察是在西方和资源充足的情况下进行的。 巴克和格里森博士假设， 相关使用--即拥有某些权利，但不是绝对的 在资源稀缺的地方发展， 权威强大，公共物品占主导地位。 他们的学习测试 这一假设发生在一个具有亚洲法律的传统的干旱地区： 苏联中亚的阿姆河和锡尔河流域。 的 研究工作包括分析现有的水权资料 在苏联的中亚共和国， 与这些实地地点的用水者和管理人员进行了沟通， 收集有关法律的、体制和环境变化的数据 本地区 苏联水权制度的产生 中亚可以增进我们对 全球变化背景下的产权和资源。 此外，很少有人尝试使用集体商品理论 比较共产主义国家和非共产主义国家的经验。 事实上，苏联的制度目前在巨大的变化， 法律的、政治的和经济的变革只会增加 这个项目的重要性。 中央集权的权力下放 在苏联的权威和周围的不确定性新 新出现的管理安排特别及时， 关键的研究重点。

In Western legal institutions, the evolution of water rights seems to follow stages of management regimes from open access through communal control to exclusive use. This progression occurs as consumption increases in water-rich areas. While there is empirical and theoretical support for such a pattern, to date this observation has been made in western and well resourced contexts. Drs. Buck and Gleason hypothesize that an alternative regime of correlative use--that is, having some rights, but not absolute ones--develops where resources are scarce, experience with central authority strong, and public goods predominate. Their study tests this hypothesis in an arid region with Asian legal traditions: the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya river basins of Soviet Central Asia. The research includes analysis of extant information on water rights in the central Asian republics of the USSR, in-depth interviews with water users and managers in these field locations, and primary data collection on legal, institutional, and environmental changes in the region. Studying the emergence of water rights arrangements in Soviet Central Asia can enhance our understanding of the meaning of property rights and resources in the context of global change. Also, there have been few efforts to use collective goods theory comparing the experience of communist and non-communist countries. The fact that the Soviet system is currently in tremendous flux in terms of legal, political, and economic transformations only adds to the importance of this project. The devolution of centralized authority in the Soviet Union and the uncertainty surrounding newly emerging governing arrangements make for a particularly timely and critical research focus.