Rhett Larson, the Richard Morrison Professor of Water Law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, will share his insights on the current state and future of water rights in outer space. For decades, international law has set outer space resources aside as the common heritage of mankind. However, a group of countries has signed the Artemis Accords, which would could change the laws of space and allow for private ownership of extraterrestrial resources. This discussion will address the importance of these developments, not only for the exploration, exploitation, and colonization of outer space, but for understanding the legal challenges surrounding water rights on Earth.

Biography

Rhett Larson is a Morrison Professor of Water Law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. He is a faculty fellow in the Center for Law and Global Affairs, and the Center for Law, Science, and Innovation. He is also a senior research fellow with the Kyl Center for Water Policy at ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy. Professor Larson’s research and teaching interests are in property law, administrative law, and environmental and natural resource law, in particular, domestic and international water law and policy. 

Professor Larson’s research focuses on the impact of technological innovation on water rights regimes, in particularly transboundary waters, and on the sustainability implications of a human right to water. He works on dispute resolution and improved processes in water rights adjudications in Arizona and the Colorado River Basin with the Kyl Center for Water Policy. He is the Principal Investigator on a USAID-funded applied research project improving water supplies for refugee host communities in Lebanon and Jordan. Professor Larson was a visiting professor and Fulbright Scholar at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, a PLuS Alliance visiting fellow with the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, a Lady Davis Fellow and visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Just Add Water: Solving the World’s Problems Using its Most Precious Resource (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Professor Larson also practiced environmental and natural resource law with law firms in Arizona, focusing on water rights, water quality, and real estate transactions.