The threat of water scarcity touches human populations and ecosystems worldwide. This work overviews the various legal responses to conflicts involving water as a resource. It addresses the continuous development of water law in the face of new water shortage scares. The distinguished team of contributors analyses the nature of the problem, international water law, legal and policy responses to water scarcity in selected regions, and the emergence of a new body of economic water law. Contributing experts in the field of water law and policy reveal the diverse and dynamic development of water law and the interaction between the legal and policy responses at the international, regional, and national levels. A result of the conference `Scarcity of Water, International, European and National Legal Aspects' held at the Faculty of Law of the Erasmus University, Rotterdam in October 1995, this book also contains a selection of papers presented at the conference.

At the UN General Assembly in 1997, an overwhelming majority of States voted for the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses – a global overarching framework governing the rights and duties of States sharing freshwater systems. Globally, there are 263 internationally shared watersheds, which drain the territories of 145 countries and represent more than forty percent of the Earth's land surface. Hence, inter-State cooperation towards the sustainable management of transboundary water supplies, in accordance with applicable international legal instruments, is a topic of crucial importance, especially in the context of the current global water crisis. This volume provides an assessment of the role and relevance of the UN Watercourses Convention and describes and evaluates its entry into force as a key component of transboundary water governance. To date, the Convention still requires further contracting States before it can enter into force. The authors describe the drafting and negotiation of the Convention and its relationship to other multilateral environmental agreements. A series of case studies assess the role of the Convention at various levels: regional (European Union, East Africa, West Africa, Central Asia, Central America and South America), river basin (e.g. the Mekong and Congo) and national (e.g. Ethiopia and Mexico). The book concludes by proposing how future implementation might further strengthen international cooperation in the management of water resources, to promote biodiversity conservation as well as sustainable and equitable use.

McIntyre's work explains the legal means by which requirements of environmental protection influence the determination of a reasonable and equitable regime for allocating rights to riparian states to utilize shared freshwater resources. The work examines the means and processes by which environmental considerations can act upon the operation of the principle of equitable utilization. The volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the subject, outlining the development, scope and operation in general and customary international law of key rules of environmental protection.

McIntyre's work explains the legal means by which requirements of environmental protection influence the determination of a reasonable and equitable regime for allocating rights to riparian states to utilize shared freshwater resources.

This collection of papers represents the outcomes of the International Symposiumheld in Delft, The Netherlands, on June 13-15, 2007, at the occasion of the 50thanniversary of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. The papers discusshow to contribute to the sustainability of effective international development andwater management with a diges

This fifth volume in the Permanent Court of Arbitration/Peace Palace Papers series reproduces the work of the 6th International Law Seminar held at the Peace Palace on November 8, 2002. The Seminar's distinguished panelists and participants focused on the settlement of international disputes over that most essential of natural resources water. They explored a range of questions: Which settlement mechanisms are most promising in the field of transboundary freshwater disputes? Is adjudication a suitable method of apportioning water rights which are vital not only to human life, but to the agriculture and industry of every nation on the planet? Given the need for "win-win" solutions to most water disputes, are negotiation and regional cooperation the only realistic and viable methods for settling them? What is the potential role of conciliation, mediation, good offices and other ad hoc mechanisms? This volume also contains the 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, a multilateral framework treaty dealing with transboundary freshwater, which provides a variety of tools (such as the submission of disputes to fact-finding commissions) for the peaceful resolution of water disputes.

Cross-border Water Trade: Legal and Interdisciplinary Perspectives is a critical assessment of one of the growing problems faced by the international community — the global water deficit. Cross-border water trade is a solution that generates ethical and economic but also legal challenges. Economic, humanitarian and environmental approaches each highlight different and sometimes conflicting aspects of the international commercialization of water. Finding an equilibrium for all the dimensions required an interdisciplinary path incorporating certain perspectives of natural law. The significance of such theoretical underpinnings is not merely academic but also quite practical, with concrete consequences for the legal status of water and its fitness for international trade.

This edited volume presents a comprehensive and comparative view of the law of international watercourses with special reference to the issues facing the Ganges River basin. It provides an analysis of the development of international waterways law and outlines the essentials of the UN Convention on non-navigational uses of international watercourses. Focusing on relations between the three riparian states of the River Ganges and the potential for cooperation, the volume also examines the domestic legal regimes of the area and the political dimension to the issues of sharing the waters of the river. The work presents a comparative picture with an analysis of developments in the Rhine and Mekong basins, comparing developments in the legal regimes of these areas with the experience of South Asia. Presenting an up-to-date analysis of the current law and pointing the direction for future developments, this collection will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy makers working in this area.

International Sustainable Development Law is a component of Encyclopedia of Development and Economic Sciences in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on International Sustainable Development Law reflects on the rights and duties of states and other actors in the development process. The chapters range from International Development Law standard applications of economic theory to more radical approaches. These three volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers, NGOs and GOs.

This paper reviews literature on the Nile basin co-operation and issues related to this process, focusing on more recent publications. The literature on utilization and management of the Nile waters related to basin-wide cooperation efforts has been growing fast during the last decade. This review discusses and covers a wide range of issues, which include: debate on water scarcity and its potential consequences in general, and its implications for the Nile basin countries in particular; legal aspects of utilization of the Nile waters focusing on the UN Watercourse Convention of 1997; conflicts and major attempts at cooperation; divergent views and interests of the basin countries; and challenges and prospects of the recent basin-wide cooperation.