Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2026
Journal Title
Transnational Environmental Law
ISSN
2047-1025
DOI
10.1017/S2047102525100149
Abstract
The regulation of groundwater remains underdeveloped globally and often lags behind the domestic governance of surface water. As a result, groundwater is often subject to unfettered extraction, uses, and contamination. A clear understanding of ownership is central to the success of domestic regulations. However, the types of ownership regime in place in nations around the world are poorly documented in the academic literature. This study addresses that gap through a comparative analysis of domestic groundwater ownership regimes across ten jurisdictions in nine countries spanning five continents. It identifies three dominant models of groundwater ownership: private ownership, public ownership, and non-ownership with public oversight. It then examines how these ownership doctrines impact key dimensions of groundwater governance, including the nature and transferability of the ownership right, the level of government at which regulation takes place, implications for rights of use, and interactions with customary and Indigenous rights. Doing so offers unique insight into how nations with different legal traditions, governance structures, and customary practices address the ownership of groundwater resources. It also suggests that different ownership (and non-ownership) models can have distinct implications for other aspects of groundwater governance.
Num Pages
28
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Rights
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained prior to any commercial use.
Notes
This article was published online on January 29, 2026 as part of Cambridge University Press FirstView, which publishes articles online prior to official volume and issue assignment and final pagination. Refer to the publisher's official version for accurate citation information, available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S2047102525100149.
Recommended Citation
Gabriel Eckstein, Theo Buchler, Caleb Cook, Heping Dang, Robyn Stein, Stefano Burchi, Gabriela Cuadrado Quesada, Juan P. Galeano, Eric Garner, Amy Hardberger, Imad A. Ibrahim & Oudi Kgomongwe,
Comparison of Groundwater Ownership Regimes in Ten Jurisdictions Across Five Continents,
Transnat'l Env't L.
(2026).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/2335
File Type
Included in
Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Environmental Law Commons, Natural Resources Law Commons, Transnational Law Commons, Water Law Commons