This book addresses the key interdisciplinary issues that increasingly confront policy makers, tribunals, arbitration bodies and other institutions. It focuses primarily on law, but also includes perspectives from economics, political science and other disciplines.

This book provides a thorough assessment of the protection, management, and uses of fresh water under international law. It explores international, regional, and national regulatory frameworks, and looks at how diverse areas of law connect and adapt to one another to make up the international legal regime regulating fresh water.

ÔFreshwater is an essential resource. This book offers a comprehensive international look at diverse issues arising from water use for human consumption, agriculture, energy, industry, waste disposal and ecosystem conservation. The contributions, written primarily but not exclusively by legal experts, are highly informed and insightful. In addition to more traditional topics, they address the WTO and natural resources, EthiopiaÕs large-scale commercial farms, and aquifer management in the Geneva region and Latin America. An important read for scholars, policy-makers, and concerned citizens.Õ à Edith Brown Weiss, Georgetown University, US ÔThis excellent book covers the important legal and political perspectives on the worldÕs freshwater resources. The chapters, written by distinguished experts from academia and practice, systematically address issues of economics, environment, sovereignty over resources, energy, conflict resolution, and in addition offer some in depth case studies. A wonderful book and compulsory reading for who needs to have the full picture of the complex international dynamics of freshwater in our time.Õ à Catherine Bršlmann, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands ÔThis volume provides a masterful investigation of the multiple points of interaction between freshwater and international law, and compelling and insightful analyses of such interactions bearing out and substantiating the thrust of the volume à mapping out the Òmultiple challengesÓ facing international law in its water governance role at different, relevant scales à global, regional and sub-regional. The volumeÕs focus on these Òmultiple challengesÓ is particularly welcome at a time when the planetÕs freshwater endowment is coming under increasing pressure from a multiplicity of factors, forcing policymakers, lawmakers, government negotiators and private-sector players on the water scene to challenge well-established behavioural and regulatory patterns, domestically and in relation to transboundary inter-State relations. In its stimulating multifarious approach, the volume offers fresh and insightful perspectives of some tested facets of the water governance role of international law, dealing with rivers, lakes and groundwater aquifers shared by a multiplicity of States. Some novel facets like, notably, the human right to water, trans-national trade in land and water resources, the rights of local communities, and State succession to water treaties, are also canvassed masterfully, adding to the value of the volume not only to international water law specialists, but also to the vast and growing population of water professionals in general. In sum, the volume is a must for all those who know and practise international and domestic water law, who influence the international water governance debate at the global, regional, and sub-regional scales, and who, in general, interact with water resources in the transboundary but also in the domestic setting of their respective countries.Õ à Stefano Burchi, Chairman of the International Association for Water Law à AIDA ÔEssential as it is to human life, over one billion people currently lack access to safe drinking water and by 2025 this group could grow to three billion. Nowhere is this situation more critical than in the over 260 international drainage basins shared by two or more states where more than half of the worldÕs population will reside by the year 2050. International Law and Freshwater is an outstanding piece of legal and policy scholarship that poignantly, thoughtfully and effectively addresses the who, what, where, when and how of international waters governance and international law.Õ à Richard Kyle Paisley, University of British Columbia, Canada The issues surrounding water embody some of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. The editors of this timely book have brought together the leading authors in the field to explore the key questions involving international law and water governance. International Law and Freshwater connects recent legal developments through the breadth and synergies of a multidisciplinary analysis. It addresses such critical issues as water security, the right to water, international cooperation and dispute resolution, State succession to transboundary watercourse treaties, and facets of international economic law, including trade in Ôvirtual waterÕ and the impacts of Ôland grabsÕ. Containing detailed analysis and thought-provoking solutions, this book will appeal to researchers and academics working in the legal field, as well as international relations and natural sciences. Water practitioners, public officials, diplomats and students will also find much to interest them in this insightful study.

This book discusses the international right to water and the liberalization of water services. It is concerned with the harmonization of the right to water with the legal systems under which liberalization of water services has taken or may take place. It assesses paths of harmonization between international human rights law and international economic law in this specific field. The issue of the compatibility between the fulfilment of the right to water and the liberalization of water services has been at the heart of a passionate public debate between opponents and advocates of the privatization of the utility. The book provides an unbiased analysis of different international legal regimes under which the liberalization of water services has occurred or is likely to occur, notably international investment law, international trade law and European Union law, in order to assess whether the main features of the right to water can be guaranteed under each of these systems of law and whether there is space for prospective harmonization. The work will be an invaluable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of International Human Rights Law, International Economic Law, International Water Law, International Trade Law and EU Law.

The Law of International Watercourses examines the rules of international law governing the non-navigational uses of international watercourses. The continued growth of the world's population places increasing demands on Earth's finite supply of fresh water. Because two or more states sharemany of the world's most important drainage basins - including The Danube, The Ganges, The Indus, The Jordan, The Mekong, The Nile, The Rhine, and The Tigris-Euphrates - competition for increasingly scarce fresh water resources is likely to increase. Resulting disputes will be resolved against thebackdrop of the rules of international law governing the use of international watercourses. In addition, these rules are of importance to donor institutions and governments that provide development assistance for projects relating to shared fresh water resources. While the law of international watercourses continues to evolve due to the intensification of use of shared fresh water resources and, consequently, increasingly frequent contacts between riparian states, The basic rules are reflected in the 1997 UN Convention on the law of the non-navigationaluses of international watercourses. This book devotes a chapter to the 1997 Convention but also examines the factual and legal context in which the Convention should be understood, considers the more important rules of the Convention in some depth and discusses specific issues that could not beaddressed in a framework instrument of that kind. In particular, the book studies the major cases and controversies concerning international watercourses as a background against which to consider the basic substantive and procedural rights and obligations of states.

Systematic and analytical, this book, written an expert in the field of hydro-politics, develops a theory to explain solutions to property rights conflicts over shared rivers. .

It is zero hour for a new US water policy! At a time when many countries are adopting new national approaches to water management, the United States still has no cohesive federal policy, and water-related authorities are dispersed across more than 30 agencies. Here, at last, is a vision for what we as a nation need to do to manage our most vital resource. In this book, leading thinkers at world-class water research institution the Pacific Institute present clear and readable analysis and recommendations for a new federal water policy to confront our national and global challenges at a critical time. What exactly is at stake? In the 21st century, pressures on water resources in the United States are growing and conflicts among water users are worsening. Communities continue to struggle to meet water quality standards and to ensure that safe drinking water is available for all. And new challenges are arising as climate change and extreme events worsen, new water quality threats materialize, and financial constraints grow. Yet the United States has not stepped up with adequate leadership to address these problems. The inability of national policymakers to safeguard our water makes the United States increasingly vulnerable to serious disruptions of something most of us take for granted: affordable, reliable, and safe water. This book provides an independent assessment of water issues and water management in the United States, addressing emerging and persistent water challenges from the perspectives of science, public policy, environmental justice, economics, and law. With fascinating case studies and first-person accounts of what helps and hinders good water management, this is a clear-eyed look at what we need for a 21st century U.S. water policy.