Jason Robison

Research Interests & Background

Professor Robison’s research revolves around the intersection of water, public lands, and Indigenous peoples, particularly in the context of western North America. Beginning with his S.J.D. dissertation at Harvard Law School, much of Professor Robison’s work focuses on the complex legal framework governing the Colorado River system—colloquially, the “Law of the River.” He is the editor of Cornerstone at the Confluence:  Navigating the Colorado River Compact's Next Century, a forthcoming volume being prepared for the historic compact’s 2022 centennial. He was the lead editor of Vision & Place: John Wesley Powell & Reimagining the Colorado River Basin, a volume produced for the epic 1869 Powell Expedition’s sesquicentennial. He is the also author of the long-running treatise Law of Water Rights and Resources. Beyond serving as Chair of the Colorado River Research Group, Professor Robison is a proud member of the Leadership Team for the Water & Tribes Initiative in the Colorado River Basin.

Selected Colorado River Publications & Presentations

Publications

“The Centennial Crises of the Colorado River Basin.” Presentation at 68^th Annual Natural Resources and Energy Law Institute, Vail, Colorado; July 21, 2022.

Jason Anthony Robison ed., Cornerstone at the Confluence: Navigating the Colorado River Compact’s Next Century (Univ. of Arizona Press, forthcoming 2022) (UA Press link)

Jason A. Robison & John C. Schmidt, The Colorado River Compact: A Centennial Perspective, 68 Rocky Mtn. Min. L. Fdn. ___ (forthcoming 2022)

Jason Anthony Robison, Confluence: The Colorado River Compact’s Centennial, 21 Wyo. L. Rev. 1 (2022) (Journal link)

Jason Anthony Robison, Walking, in A River Out of Time, Thomas Minckley et al. eds. (2021)

Jason Robison, Matthew McKinney & Daryl Vigil, Community in the Colorado River Basin, 57 Idaho L. Rev. 1 (2021) (SSRN link)

Jason Robison, Daniel McCool & Thomas Minckley eds., Vision & Place: John Wesley Powell & Reimagining the Colorado River Basin (Univ. of California Press, 2020) (UC Press link)

Jason Robison, Barbara Cosens, Sue Jackson, Kelsey Leonard & Daniel McCool, Indigenous Water Justice, 22 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 841 (2018) (SSRN link)

Erum Sattar, Jason Robison & Daniel McCool, Evolution of Water Institutions in the Indus River Basin: Reflections from the Law of the Colorado River, 51 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 715 (2018) (SSRN link)

Jason Anthony Robison, The Colorado River Revisited, 88 U. Colo. L. Rev. 475 (2017) (SSRN link)

Jason Anthony Robison, Climate Change & Allocation Institutions in the Colorado River Basin, in Western Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate 289 (2016) (SSRN link)

Jason A. Robison, Colorado River Water in Southern California: Evolution of the Allocation Framework, 1922-2015, 27 W. Legal. Hist. 139 (2015) (SSRN link)

Jason Robison, Katja Bratrschovsky, Jaime Latcham, Eliza Morris, Vanessa Palmer & Arturo Villanueva, Challenge and Response in the Colorado River Basin, 16 Water Pol’y 12 (2014) (SSRN link)

Jason A. Robison & Lawrence J. MacDonnell, Arizona v. California & the Colorado River Compact: Fifty Years Ago, Fifty Years Ahead, 3 Ariz. J. Envtl. L. & Pol’y 130 (2014) (SSRN link)

Jason A. Robison & Douglas S. Kenney, Equity & the Colorado River Compact, 42 Envtl. L. 1157 (2012) (SSRN link)

Presentations

“Confluence at the Compact’s Centennial.” Opening Address at Water & Tribes Initiative and Stegner Center The Colorado River Compact: Navigating the Future Symposium, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, Salt Lake City, Utah; March 17, 2022. 

“Confluence: The Colorado River Compact's Centennial.” Presentation at University of Wyoming College of Law 2021 Trelease Dinner, Laramie, Wyoming; Oct. 15, 2021.

“Vision & Place: John Wesley Powell & Reimagining the Colorado River Basin.” Moderator at Wallace Stegner Center Green Bag, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, Salt Lake City, Utah; Feb. 18, 2021.

“Toward a Colorado River Community: Past, Present, Future.” Moderator at Colorado River Days Flagstaff 2020, Flagstaff, Arizona; Sept. 10, 2020.

“Imagining Place—John Wesley Powell & the Colorado River Basin: Reflections upon the 1869 Colorado River Exploring Expedition’s Sesquicentennial.” Moderator at Western History Association 2019 Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada; Oct. 18, 2019.

“John Wesley Powell and Reimagining the Colorado River Basin: Sesquicentennial Perspectives.” Moderator of Native Americans Panels I & II, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona; Sept. 10, 2019.

“Past, Present, and Future of the Colorado River.” Presentation at Sesquicentennial Colorado River Exploring Expedition Symposium, Glen Canyon Conservancy, Page, Arizona; July 11, 2019.

“Powell’s ‘Grand Canyon’: A Centennial Perspective.” Presentation at Sesquicentennial Colorado River Exploring Expedition Launch, Green River, Wyoming; May 23, 2019.

“Water in the West.” Panel Participant on Collaboration and Equity in the Colorado River Basin in a Future of Drought Panel, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming; Nov. 12, 2018.

“2018 Tribal Water Summit.” Panel Participant on The Role of Tribes in the Colorado River Basin Panel, WestWater Research, Gila River Indian Community, Arizona; Oct. 25-26, 2018.

“Colorado River Workshop: Building a Science Agenda.” Panel Participant on Cultural, Institutional, and Legal Issues Panel, University of Arizona Institute of the Environment, Tucson, Arizona; Oct. 10-12, 2017.

“Indigenous Water Justice in the Colorado, Columbia & Murray-Darling Basins.” Presentation at Waterkeeper Alliance 2017 Annual Conference, Park City, Utah; June 9, 2017.

“Indigenous Water Justice.” Presentation at Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation’s Eighteenth Institute for Natural Resources Law Teachers, Indigenous Rights and North American Natural Resource Activity Panel, Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta; June 2, 2017.

“Synthesis of the Indigenous Water Justice Symposium.” Panel Moderator at University of Colorado Law School 2016 Martz Summer Conference, Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences, Boulder, Colorado; June 9, 2016

“The Colorado River Revisited.” Presentation at Vermont Law School Sixth Annual Environmental Scholarship Colloquium, South Royalton, Vermont; Oct. 3, 2015.

“Climate Change and the Colorado River.” Presentation at University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, Environmental Law Workshop, Denver, Colorado; Feb. 23, 2015.

“Colorado River Water in Southern California: Evolution of the Allocation Framework, 1922-2014.” Presentation at Rocky Mountain Junior Scholars Forum, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, Salt Lake City, Utah; Nov. 14, 2014.

“Colorado River Water in Southern California: Evolution of the Allocation Framework, 1922-2014.” Presentation at Western History Association 2014 Annual Conference, Newport Beach, California; Oct. 16, 2014.

“Reckoning Arizona v. California with the Colorado River Compact.” Presentation at University of Colorado Law School Conference, Arizona v. California at 50: The Legacy and Future of Governance, Reserved Rights, and Water Transfers, Boulder, Colorado; Aug. 16, 2013.

“Forging Ahead in the Era of Limits: The Evolution of Interstate Water Policy in the Colorado River Basin.” Presentation at Harvard University Water Federalism Project Conference, Cambridge, Mass.; April 20, 2012.