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Show 180 WATER RIGHTS SYSTEMS PERTAINING TO WATERCOURSES relations between consumers and distributing agencies-such as contracts with companies or districts, holding of shares of stock in corporations, and ownership of land within public districts-and fewer and fewer appropriations of water by individuals. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE RIPARIAN DOCTRINE IN THE WEST Origins and Asserted Origins of the Riparian Doctrine The riparian doctrine is not an arid region doctrine of water law. There is noth- ing in it as stated in early court decisions in the East or abroad to suggest that a comparable philosophy of water rights law could have been indigenous a century ago to the undeveloped West, where the water potential fell far short of meeting the needs of large areas of arable land. The history of western agriculture and water law refutes such a possibility. As a practical matter, the riparian doctrine was found to be unsuited to water development in the more arid areas, and as a legal matter it was repudiated in the predominantly arid jurisdictions. Had the riparian doctrine been recognized and applied in Utah, said the supreme court of that State, "It would still be a desert."95 It is clear that the so-called riparian doctrine in its simplest form-although molded and developed by some westerners to meet the demands of expanding economies, and by others rejected completely-was not a native of the West. It came to the West as a part of the common law of England. But questions as to when it was introduced into the English common law before the latter came west have been and still are being raised. Furthermore, assertion of Spanish origin was urged and rejected in the Valmont Plantations case.96 Common Law of England Adoption of riparian doctrine in Western States.- Certain Western States that adopted the common law of England also adopted by virtue thereof the riparian doctrine of rights in water of watercourses. In others, notwithstanding adoption of the common law, constitutional or statutory provisions repudiated the riparian doctrine, or court decisions held that it had not become a part of the State law because unsuited to the local natural environment. Association of the riparian doctrine, in its earliest and most simplified aspects, with English common law has been practically uniform in western judicial writings. The "common law riparian doctrine" is a familiar phrase. Sometimes the statement is merely "the common law doctrine," or "common 9SStowell v. Johnson, 7 Utah 215, 225-226, 26 Pac. 290 (1891). 96State v. Valmont Plantations, 346 S. W. (2d) 853 (Tex. Civ. App. 1961), affirmed, 163 Tex. 381, 355 S. W. (2d) 502 (1962). |