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.

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.

Introduction -- Freshwater protection regime -- Definitions of freshwater protection -- Rules and principles of international water law -- The relationship between equitable utilisation and no-harm -- The international jurisprudence on "due regard" -- The non-applicability of hierarchical norms under international law -- The due diligence obligation -- Case study of the mekong river commission -- Conclusion.

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.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses plays a crucial role in protecting and managing international watercourses and other sources of fresh water. Boisson de Chazournes, Mbengue, Tignino, and Sangbana head a team of experts in this Commentary, examining the travaux préparatoires leading to the Convention and the practice that has developed since the adoption of the Convention in 1997. Tackling the rationale and objectives of the provisions, they offer crucial insights to the Convention's impact on the development of a universal regime for shared water resources. Examining cross-cutting topics such as the core water principles, the prevention and settlement of water disputes, the relationship between the Convention and other legal instruments, as well as the role of the ICJ and other judicial means to solve water disputes, this book is crucial to all those who seek a deep understanding of water law.

Groundwater represents about 97 per cent of the fresh water resources available on earth (excluding the water locked in the polar ice), and is of key social, economic, environmental and strategic importance. Aquifers (including numerous transboundary ones) are coming under growing pressure from over-abstraction and pollution, which seriously threaten their sustainability. This publication brings together a range of binding and non-binding international law instruments dealing with groundwater, an emerging body of rules that indicate a trend towards more comprehensive international regulation in this important field.

Water treaties, agreements and conventions abound, but knowledge of them, and the relevant records, used to be scattered and not always easily accessible. Utilizing historical documents, statistical analyses, and maps, the Atlas presents both a graphic and textual analysis and documentation of the world's international basins and their agreements. This Atlas builds upon knowledge stored in existing environmental legislative databases in an attempt to consolidate and disseminate information about shared water treaties. It yields a better understanding of existing treaties and treaty development through time, provide a basis for negotiating new agreements, and organizes the underlying knowledge for improving environmental governance throughout the world.