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Show ESTABLISHMENT OF THE RIPARIAN DOCTRINE IN THE WEST 183 anyone who had cited it as authority, the authors embarked upon the considerable undertaking of making a comprehensive study of the article and the original sources. This they believed to be of great importance, apparently because constantly increasing demands upon available water supplies in Eastern States have stimulated proposals to revise the common law riparian system in an effort to cope with the situation. The authors' study convinced them that Wiel was wrong in the essential facets of his thesis-that his errors resulted largely from errors in interpretation of the sources on which he relied. Their article is devoted to dissecting Wiel's thesis and to proving their own points. If the conclusions of these authors are correct, the riparian doctrine was not introduced into English law from the Code Napoleon by Story and Kent. On the contrary, say these researchers, the common law has been riparian in character from early times, and American common law, even before Story and Kent, was riparian. Spanish-Mexican Law What is now the southwestern part of the United States was occupied by Spanish and Mexican settlers and contained land grants of various sizes made by or under the authority of the governments of Spain and Mexico. Parts of this erstwhile Hispanic domain are principally included in what is now California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. Of these States, only California and Texas have generally recognized the riparian water-rights doctrine. California.-The question whether Spanish or Mexican land grants in California carried with them as appurtenances riparian rights to the use of water for irrigation of lands contiguous to streams has apparently never been a major issue. Such lands bordering on streams have been recognized as having riparian rights, but neither greater nor less than lands acquired from the United States Government. That is, recognition of the common law riparian doctrine served to clothe the proprietors of riparian lands granted prior to statehood with the same water privileges that it accorded to early possessors of lands contiguous to streams on the public domain of the United States and to subsequent grantees of such lands. Controversies over riparian rights aris- ing on lands originally granted by Spain or Mexico which reached the California Supreme Court have been settled according to riparian prin- ciples applicable to privately owned lands in general, regardless of the source of private title.109 On the whole, Spanish-Mexican water law made little impression on the water law of California other than with respect to water rights of American cities that succeeded Spanish and Mexican pueblos.110 109 Some cases in which lands in Spanish and Mexican grants contiguous to streams were recognized as having riparian rights are cited in Hutchins, supra note 75, p. 179. "°See Hutchins, Wells A., "Pueblo Water Rights in the West," 38 Tex. Law Rev. 748-762 (1960). |