Public Trust Doctrine:
The Supreme Court recently held that the doctrine of public trust is not confined only to natural waterbodies such as rivers, lakes, and wetlands but also extends to man-made or artificially created waterbodies that serve ecological or environmental purposes.
- It is a legal principle establishing that certain natural and cultural resources are preserved for public use.
- Rooted in Roman law and developed through English common law, this doctrine encompasses various public assets such as tidal waters, lakes, rivers, wetlands, and ecosystems.
- It rests on the principle that certain resources have such great importance to the people as a whole that it would be wholly unjustified to make them a subject of private ownership.
- The public is considered the owner of the resources, and the government protects and maintains these resources for the public’s use.
- The doctrine enjoins upon the government to safeguard the resources for the enjoyment of the final public instead of to allow their use for personal possession or industrial functions.
- Three types of restrictions on governmental authority are often thought to be imposed by the public trust:
- the property subject to the trust must not only be used for a public purpose, but it must be held available for use by the general public;
- the property may not be sold, even for a fair cash equivalent;
- the property must be maintained for particular types of uses.
