| Abstract: | ABSTRACT: The problem of allocating scarce water resources among competing uses and users over time in Hawaii is addressed within the context of analytical institutional economics. The nature of this problem has been, in recent years, highly complicated by important institutional changes that control operating decisions for water supply and water pollution. Whereas the imbalance in governmental initiatives regarding changes in the system of water rights (predominantly state) and environmental laws (predominantly federal) are based on U.S. constitutional provisions, the more fundamental roots of the crucial legal doctrines involved have been traced back to the common property concept. This suggests that the more promising opportunities for meeting the water policy challenges of the state are to be found in the historical common property system (ahupua'a) of Hawaii. |
