In 2018, I spent 4 months abroad undertaking comparative research into water rights. Firstly, between March-May, I was in Louisiana as a visiting researcher at Loyola University and The Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy, New Orleans. This trip was funded by The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Secondly, I was in Oslo between June-August as a visiting researcher at the Natural Resources Law Research Group at the University of Oslo, which was funded by a Carnegie Research Incentive Grant. 

In June, I presented the preliminary outcomes of my research into Louisianan law at the Association of Law, Property and Society Conference being held at the University of Maastricht. In this presentation, I discussed the factual scenario of a fracking truck parking on a public road and taking water from a river – an issue which arose recently in Louisiana – and compared Scotland and Louisiana’s solutions to this problem. I emphasised the importance of the classification of water and its ownership in dealing with this situation.

In November, I took part in the annual Ius Commune Conference in Amsterdam. Here I talked about general traits of property law that can hinder reforms in favour of sustainability and demonstrated potential lessons to learn from Norway through using examples from the history of Norwegian water law. This presentation was the first official activity of ProSus - a new property and sustainability research network founded by myself, Bram Akkermans - Associate Professor of European Private Law at University of Maastricht - and Elsabe van der Sijde – Fellow of the South African Research Chair in Property Law at the University of Stellenbosch.

First published: 4 January 2019

<< events