In this chapter we describe how the courts have often been utilized as a method of conflict resolution since the late 19th century. Our analysis begins with the Western US, and works toward specific elements related to Arizona. Our research hypothesis is as follows: whereas historically the resolution of conflicts in the courts has created norms, rules, and instruments that take the form of legal and institutional tools, in more contemporary times, water management has political strategies at its core often with the aim of avoiding court action, and producing social consensus between professionals of water management and the public. To say that there has been a consistent historical movement from conflict to cooperation would be far too simplistic - the water in the Colorado River Basin has not been managed in a smooth, linear fashion. Instead, conflict and cooperation are in constant flux (Zeitoun & Murumachi, 2008), and both of these components cohabitate in the complex world of water management. Conflict and cooperation necessitate a social, and therefore relational, way of thinking about water. Consequently, water management cannot be evaluated by a singular focus on the hydrologic cycle (Linton & Budds, 2014), groundwater-surface water interactions, legal structures, climate change, or the need for policy solutions to manage drought. The social agents involved, taken alongside the institutions and norms they created and continue to create, are of primary interest for a social analysis of the legal structures underlying water management in Western United States.

O’Neill, Brian F., Murielle Coeurdray, Franck Poupeau, Joan Cortinas. 2016. “Laws of the River: Conflict and Cooperation on the Colorado River.” In Franck Poupeau, Hoshin Gupta, Aleix, Serrat-Capdevila, Maria A. Sans-Fuentes, Susan Harris, and László G. Hayde (ed.): Water Bankruptcy in the Land of Plenty (Chapter 4, pg. 43-62). June 2016. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA. ISBN: 978-1-138-02969-9 (Pbk), Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN: 978-1-4987-7699-8 (eBook PDF), UNESCO-IHE, Delft, Netherlands.