Jason Robison
Carl M. Williams Professor of Law & Social Responsibility | University of Wyoming College of Law
Colorado River Research Group

Research Interests & Background

Professor Robison’s research primarily revolves around water, public lands, and Native peoples in the American West, with a particular emphasis on the complex body of laws and policies governing transboundary relations over the Colorado River system—i.e., the Law of the River. He is the editor of , a multi-disciplinary volume published by University of Arizona Press for the historic compact’s 2022 centennial, and the lead editor of , a multi-disciplinary volume published by University of California Press examining water, public lands, and Native Americans in the basin upon the 1869 Powell Expedition’s sesquicentennial. Professor Robison also authors the long-running treatise . Beyond serving on the Colorado River Research Group, Professor Robison is a proud member of the Water & Tribes Initiative leadership team.

Selected Colorado River Publications & Presentations

Publications

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

Jason A. Robison & John C. Schmidt,The Colorado River Compact: A Centennial Perspective, 68Rocky Mtn. Min. L. Fdn.8-1 (2022)

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

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) ()

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

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

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)

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

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)

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

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)

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)

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

Presentations

“In the Courts of the Conqueror: Arizona v. Navajo Nation.” Plenary address at Universities Council on Water Resources/National Institute of Water Resources 2023 Annual Conference, Fort Collins, Colorado; June 13, 2023.

“Cornerstone at the Confluence: Navigating the Colorado River Compact’s Next Century.” Presentation at Special Session on Management in the Colorado River Basin, Universities Council on Water Resources/National Institutes for Water Resources 2023 Annual Conference, Fort Collins, Colorado; June 13, 2023.

“Cornerstone at the Confluence: Navigating the Colorado River Compact’s Next Century.” Presentation at Water & Tribes Initiative Luncheon, Colorado River Water Users Association Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada; Dec. 14, 2022.

“Climate Change & Colorado River Governance.” Panelist at University of Arizona AIRES/CCASS Symposium, Confluence: The Colorado River at the Compact’s Centennial, Tucson, Arizona; Dec. 6, 2022.

“Fdz Winters to the 2026 Guidelines: Tribal Water Rights in the Colorado River Basin.” Presentation at Dividing the Waters 2022 General Conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Dec. 1, 2022.

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

“Confluence at the Compact’s Centennial.” Opening Address at Water & Tribes Initiative and Stegner CenterThe Colorado River Compact: Navigating the FutureSymposium, 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.