Protecting the marine environment since 1977
Public Trust Doctrine
For The Good of The People
Ed Owens, Chair, Citizens for Responsible Wildlife Management
PO Box 14245, Tumwater, WA 98511-4245, July 2001
Regardless of how we trace its ancestry the Public Trust Doctrine – the principle of common law directing who owns and manages natural resources – is deeply rooted in our culture and history. Some historians have argued that hunting of game, fishing and wildlife management responsibility components of the doctrine have their origins in English common law dating back to the Saxon invasion of England in about 450 AD and maintained after the Norman Conquest in 1066.[1] It is clearly evident that elements of the doctrine related to fish, shorelines and water have come to us from codified dictates enacted by the Roman Emperor Justinian in about 530 A.D.
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