Sept. 16 Lecture to Address Water Privatization in Human Rights and National Security Context
Professor Tony Arnold, Boehl Chair in Property and Land Use at the University of Louisville, will present a lecture titled "Water Privatization Trends in the U.S.: Issues of Human Rights and National Security" on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 5 p.m. in room 124 at William & Mary Law School. The lecture is sponsored by the Human Rights and National Security Law Program. Admission is free and all are welcome.
The privatization of public water services and water resources generally implicate both human rights and national security concerns, not only globally but also in the U.S. All communities, social and political systems, and economies depend on this finite resource for survival and vitality. This lecture explores the current trends favoring and opposing privatization of water in the U.S, understood in the context of global trends. These trends reflect tensions between the private and public nature of water, between economic efficiency and social equity, between globalization and local control, between resource development and resource conservation, and between the meaning of water as an economic good and as the ecological, ethical, religious, and social meanings of water. In light of these tensions and heightened sensitivities to the security of the American public, the lecture will focus on the implications of water privatization for human rights and national security.
Arnold specializes in the environmental regulation of land use, water, and property. He has received national recognition for his research, much of which is interdisciplinary and empirical. In particular, scholars and professionals selected his articles as among the best published in environmental and land use law. Arnold's recent books include Wet Growth: Should Water Law Control Land Use? (Environmental Law Institute 2005), and Fair and Healthy Land Use: Environmental Justice and Planning (American Planning Association 2007). His current research examines the structure of the land use regulatory system in the context of deliberative participatory democracy and discretionary decision making.
Arnold received his J.D., with distinction, from Stanford Law School. His public service experience includes practicing public law with a large law firm in San Antonio, Texas, clerking for a federal appellate judge, serving as a city attorney, chairing the Planning Commission of Anaheim, CA, and serving on numerous nonprofit boards and community initiatives.