ABSTRACT
One of the challenges, therefore, has been to develop legal constructs and frameworks able to protect the resource in the long term but simultaneously provide for its present use (Godden 2003). In this regard the idea of a partial water market has gained favour and hence the development of suitable frameworks and mechanisms for water trading in the wider context of environmental protection and sustainability have become important. In order to examine that challenge more carefully, this chapter explores the shifting positions on how, historically, water has been legally classified and, in so doing, considers the relationship between classification and management of the resource. For example, it considers the different types of rights (such as a commons, common property, public property, common law riparian rights and statutory rights) which have been relied upon to manage access, use, control, quality and quantity of water.
