Originally published in 1987, this is a collection of articles on Transboundary Resources Law. From the preface: “Migratory transboundary resources by their nature of being divided by political boundaries raise unusual challenges to their prudent use and development, and the avoidance of disputes over their use. One only has to recall examples, s

This book analyses the legal challenges facing international cooperation on water management in the twenty-first century.

Why do states often fail to cooperate, using transboundary natural resources inefficiently and unsustainably? This book, first published in 2002, examines the contemporary international norms and policy recommendations that could provide incentives for states to cooperate. Its approach is multi-disciplinary, proposing transnational institutions for the management of transboundary resources. Benvenisti takes a fresh approach to the problem, considering mismanagement as the link between domestic and international processes. As well, he explores reasons why some collective efforts to develop the international law on transnational ecosystems have failed, while others succeeded. This inquiry suggests that adjudicators need to be assertive in progressively developing the law, while relying on scientific knowledge more than on past practice. Global water policy issues seem set to remain a cause for concern for the foreseeable future; this study provides a new approach to the problem of freshwater, and will interest international environmentalists and lawyers, and international relations scholars and practitioners.

Groundwater amounts to 97% of available global freshwater resources. Emphasising the crucial importance of this in the context of increasing population, climate change and the overall global water crisis, Francesco Sindico offers a comprehensive study of the emerging body of international law applicable to transboundary aquifers.

The apparently inexorable demand for natural resources in an increasingly overcrowded world is widely recognized as one of the most serious threats to the ecological and political stability of our planet. A large part of the problem stems from the fact that distribution of resources rarely coincides with the world's political boundaries, and thereby creates a tension between the need for effective management of resources as natural units and the desire of individual states to take full advantage of resources within their jurisdiction.