Subsiding Land and Falling Ground-Water Tables: Public Policy, Private Liability, and Legal Remedy
回顾了地面沉降的物理成因，并解释了支撑权、侵权责任和地下水管理法律中不断演变的责任原则，重点分析了美国西南部（得克萨斯、亚利桑那、加利福尼亚）的情况。
Subsidence of the earth's surface has caused physical and social problems for decades, yet only recently have these problems been seen as the legitimate concern of public policy makers, planners, and land owners. When subsidence is caused by human actions, are we helpless or without responsibility? This is clearly not the case in our modern legal system which has assigned liabilities for subsidence-causing activities and public responsibilities when subsidence is both natural and man-made. This article will review the latest physical explanations of subsidence and explain the evolving legal doctrines of responsibility, doctrines arising from the laws of support, tort liability, and ground-water management. The problems of subsidence are of increasing significance in the Southwest, so this article examines the situation in Texas, Arizona, and-California.