East Going West?: The Promise of Assured Supply Laws in Modern Real Estate Development

Traditionally, eastern water law and western water law have been distinct. That landscape is shifting. In many ways, western and eastern water law have begun to merge. Still, one legal tool prevalent in the West remains embryonic in the East: assured water supply laws, or requirements that developers prove they will have water before projects can proceed. This article asks whether the assured supply mechanism should be imported more broadly into the East. The Article takes this inquiry in four parts. It (1) assesses whether the rationales for assured supply laws translate to the East, (2) weighs whether assured supply laws’ net benefits would be useful in that region, (3) evaluates potential obstacles to using the device in riparian and regulated riparian legal systems, and (4) provides initial policy suggestions for eastern lawmakers interested in enacting assured supply laws.