Riparian water rights

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Property law

Part of the common law series
Acquisition of property
Gift · Adverse possession · Deed
Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property
Bailment · Licence
Estates in land
Allodial title · Fee simple
Life estate · Fee tail · Future interest
Concurrent estate · Leasehold estate
Condominiums
Conveyancing of interests in land
Bona fide purchaser · Torrens title
Estoppel by deed · Quitclaim deed
Mortgage · Equitable conversion
Action to quiet title
Limiting control over future use
Restraint on alienation
Rule against perpetuities
Rule in Shelley's Case
Doctrine of worthier title
Nonpossessory interest in land
Easement · Profit
Covenant running with the land
Equitable servitude
Related topics
Fixtures · Waste · Partition
Riparian water rights
Lateral and subjacent support
Assignment · Nemo dat
Other areas of the common law
Contract law · Tort law
Wills and trusts
Criminal Law · Evidence

Riparian water rights (or simply riparian rights) is a system of allocating water among the property owners who abut its source. It has its origins in English common law. It is used in the United Kingdom and the eastern United States.

Under the riparian principle, all landowners whose property is adjacent to a body of water have the right to make reasonable use of it. If there is not enough water to satisfy all users, allotments are generally fixed in proportion to frontage on the water source. These rights cannot be sold or transferred other than with the adjoining land, and water cannot be transferred out of the watershed.

Riparian rights include such things as the right to access for swimming, boating and fishing; the right to wharf out to a point of navigability; the right to erect structures such as docks, piers, and boat lifts; the right to use the water for domestic purposes; the right to acretions caused by water level fluctuations; the right to view and protection of view. Riparian rights also depend upon "reasonable use" as it relates to other riparian owners to ensure that the rights of one riparian owner are weighed fairly and equitably with the rights of adjacent riparian owners.

In the western United States, water rights are generally allocated under the principle of prior appropriation, which treats water as a resource unrelated to land.