TO THE HON. THOMAS M. COOLEY, LL. D., WHO EMINENTLY ADORNS AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE, IN THE CAPACITY OF JUDGE, AUTHOR AND TEACHER, AND IN EACH OF WHICH HE HAS NO SUPERIOR, THIS WORK IS DEDICATED AS AN EXPRESSION OF ADMIRATION AND RESPECT, BY ONE WHO HAS ENJOYED THE GOOD FORTUNE OF BEING BOTH HIS PUPIL AND FRIEND. PREFACE. The present work has been written with the hope that it may prove serviceable to the profession in their investigation of a subject comparatively new in the history of American jurisprudence. Irrigation was born from the absolute necessities of the settlers of an Arid Region. Although practiced in the United States by an English speaking people but about fifty years it has been the principal means of the settlement and development of that portion of our country west of the 100th meridian, until to-day it has become a subject of paramount importance to the whole country. Involving, as it does, a use of water based upon the principle of priority of appropriation-which doctrine was not recognized by the common law-irrigation has caused numberless controversies concerning water-rights. As the result of these contentions a mass of court decisions and statutory law upon the subject has been evolved which governs the subject of waters in the Arid Region. Part One of this volume is devoted to a general discussion of the nature and history of irrigation and the general laws that govern the subject in the Arid Region. As the character of irrigation law depends largely upon the physical and topographical conditions of the State or Territory wherein the same has been evolved and is in force, in order to understand its development the author has very briefly described the general condition of the various States and Territories in Part Two. This part also contains an abstract of the statutory laws and the construction of those laws by the courts. SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. February 23, 1894. CLESSON S. KINNEY. |