The Law of the River

Law of the River documents from Reclamation: Managing Water in the West. This is the fourth in a series of volumes chronicling the history of the use and management of the Colorado River.

The print volume is in the library's Government Documents section (lower level) at I 27:81:C 71/. Along with the three previous volumes, it is available for browsing and searching electronically here. Selected documents are also available on the Department of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation web page.

Key documents in the river's lengthy legal history follow. For related hearing transcripts and meeting minutes on Arizona's role in the Compact, see The Colorado River Compact, part of the Cracchiolo Law Library's Digital Collections. .

• ​​Colorado River Compact (1922)
• Colorado River Basin, Map No. 23000 (1928)
• Upper Colorado River Basin Compact (1948)

• Special Master Rifkind, Report (1960)
• Opinion (1963)
• Decree (1964)
• Supplemental Decree (1979)
• Special Master Tuttle, Report (1982)
• Opinion (1983)
• Second Supplemental Decree (1984)
• Special Master McGarr, Report, Recommendations and Appendix (1999)
• Opinion (2000)
• Supplemental Decree (2000)
• Special Master, McGarr, Approval of Final Settlements and Recommendations (2005)
• Consolidated Decree (2006)

• Stipulation (2000)
• Revised Stipulation (2003)
• Stipulation for Judgment (2007)
• Stipulated Judgment (2007)

• The Hoover Dam Power and Water Contracts and Related Data: with Introductory Notes (1933)
• The Hoover Dam Documents (1948)
• Updating the Hoover Dam Documents (1978)