ABSTRACT
Picture if you can the stratified face of a towering southwestern mesa, showing the numerous geological layers of which it is composed piled one on the other, and you will have in your mind’s eye a perfect portrait of the long sequence of legal regimes composing New Mexico’s current water law. Sovereign after sovereign has washed over the scant waters of desert New Mexico, each bringing its own version of water law with it, each leaving behind the distinct imprint of its version as it was overlain by the next layer. Current New Mexico water law is thus the special sum of its many distinct historical parts.
