Public Trust Doctrine

The Public Trust Doctrine holds that certain natural resources are preserved for natural use, and that the government must maintain and protect these resources for the public use.

The public trust doctrine as a tool of environmental conservation emerged in the United States in the 1970's following an influential law review article. It has since been widely recognized in numerous U.S. States as well as other countries. India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, and Canada all have robust versions of the public trust doctrine.

Origins
The public trust doctrine is said to have its historical roots in Roman and English law concerning property rights in rivers, the sea, and the seashore. The doctrine maintained that navigable waters were held by the sovereign in a public trust and protected for public use. The emergence of the public trust doctrine in United States case law was also concerned with property rights in navigable waters, mainly the rights to fishing, navigation, and commerce.

The case Illinois Central Railroad v. Illinois was a landmark for the development of the public trust doctrine in the United States. The case concerned the decision by the State of Illinois to grant a large amount of Lake Michigan shoreline and submerged lands to the Illinois Central Railroad. The United States Supreme Court ultimately invalidated the grant as in violation of the public trust because Lake Michigan was held in trust for the public and could not be given over to private interests.

United States case law continued to apply the public trust doctrine, most commonly to issues of navigable waters, throughout the early 20th century. In 1970, Joseph Sax published an influential article in the Michigan Law Review making the case that courts had a role in overseeing the proper management of natural resources under the public trust doctrine. The article has highly influential in enshrining the public trust doctrine in the emerging field of environmental law. Indeed, Sax argued the public trust doctrine could be extended beyond issues concerning navigable waters to issues such as air pollution, pesticide dissemination, the location of utilities, strip mining, and wetland filling.

Modern Application - U.S. Law
Follow the Sax article, the public trust doctrine expanded in United States case law. The doctrine came to be applied not just to navigable waters and tidal lands, but also to shores and beaches, consumptive water rights, groundwater rights, water quality rights, fish and wildlife resources, and air resources.

One of the most important cases in this process was National Audubon Society v. Superior Court, commonly referred to as the Mono Lake decision, in which the California Supreme Court ruled that water divisions by the City of Los Angeles that were draining Mono Lake were a violation of the public trust. The case extended the public trust doctrine to include water rights administration.

With the passage of landmark environmental legislation in the United States in the 1970's, the public trust doctrine was at least partially enshrined into U.S. federal law. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 includes a clause that states it is the duty of government to "fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as trustee of the environment for succeeding generations." The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 requires federal officials to "act on behalf of the public, Indian tribe, or foreign country as trustee of the natural resources to recover for the costs of replacing or restoring such resources."

India
In the 1996 case M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath, the Supreme Court of India declared the public trust doctrine to be "part of the law of the land," and included the seashore, running waters, airs, forests, and ecologically fragile lands as subject to the public trust doctrine. The Court asserted that the State, as trustee, is under a legal duty to protect the natural resources.

The Philippines
The case Oposa v. Factoran located the public trust doctrine in the Philippines' constitutional right to a healthy environment and gave standing to schoolchildren to represent the interest of future generations.

South Africa
The public trust doctrine has been incorporated into the Integrated Coastal Managements, National Water, and National Environmental Management Acts.

India

 * M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath

Philippines

 * Oposa v. Factoran