합리적 물 관리와 유역별 협력체계구축을 위한 법적 과제

Abstract

The Constitutional Law of 1948 in Korea prescribed that natural resources were belonged to the state and use thereof should be chartered for certain period by the state. But it is difficult to proclaim that natural resources are owned by the state only. Natural resources are now public goods. Water resources are also a sort of natural resources. Water resources should not be owned exclusively by anyone, but be used by people everywhere. The Constitutional Law of 1954 in Korea, therefore, abandoned the ownership of natural resources by the state, but reserved the charter of natural resources by the state. The present Constitutional Law of 1987 in Korea took over the article of the Constitutional Law of 1954 with respect to the charter of natural resources. The Rivers Act of 1999 and the Dam Construction Act of 1999 in Korea gave water-undertakers who received the charter from state monopolistic and exclusive rights to distribute and sell water on rivers and in dams. These acts are reluctant to authorize people’s rights to use water nearby rivers under traditional common laws. But the Civil Act of 1958 prescribed people's rights to use water nearby rivers under traditional common laws like the Water Resources Act of 1991 in the U.K. The Rivers Act and the Dams Act in Korea should recognize more flexibly water rights under common laws. The Fundamental Act of Water (tentative name) should be enacted immediately not only for reasonable water distribution and use, but also cooperation and coordination between the upper-stream and lower-stream.