English edit

Etymology edit

From riparian +‎ -ism.

Noun edit

riparianism (uncountable)

  1. (chiefly US, law) A doctrine of riparian rights, based on the principle that the owners of riparian land had the right to remove reasonable amounts of water from the river, but others did not.
    • 1993, Mary Catherine Miller, Flooding the Courtrooms: Law and Water in the Far West[1], →ISBN, page 180:
      The result was a string of decisions that further established riparianism as a rule of law.