Volume 25 Issue 4 Symposium on International Resources Law Fall 1985 The Law of Prior Appropriation: Possible Lessons for Hawaii Stephen F. Williams Recommended Citation Stephen F. Williams, The Law of Prior Appropriation: Possible Lessons for Hawaii, 25 Nat. Resources J. 911 (1985). Available at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol25/iss4/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Natural Resources Journal by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS* The Law of Prior Appropriation: Possible Lessons for Hawaii- INTRODUCTION Hawaiian water law has been in turmoil for nearly thirteen years. On January 10, 1973, in McBryde Sugar Co. v. Robinson,' the Supreme Court of Hawaii overturned a long-established system of rights.2 Liti- gation testing the validity of McBryde has since wended its way through the federal and state courts. On February 20, 1985, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit effectively overturned McBryde.3 In the meantime, the Hawaiian legislature established an Advisory Study Commission on Water Resources ("Advisory Commission"). The Com- mission issued its report ("Commission Report") on January 14, 1985.' The stage is thus set for Hawaii now to resolve its water conflicts. Hawaii's key choice relates to transferability. Pre-McBryde law, like that of most prior appropriation states, permitted transfer of water rights as long as the transfer inflicted no injury on other water users.5 This *Professor of Law, University of Colorado.