Alistair Rieu-Clarke

Exploring China's transboundary water treaty practice through the prism of the UN Watercourses Convention

China shares 40 major transboundary watercourses with 16 countries. This paper surveys Chinas transboundary water treaty practice and compares it to the core principles of the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC). Despite a growing watercourse treaty practice stretching back some 60 years, Chinas agreements in this field are relatively unsophisticated. The authors conclude that Chinas transboundary water treaty practice would benefit from some of the guidelines set forth under the UNWC.

International Law and Sustainable Development: Lessons from the Law of International Watercourses

Implementing the goal of sustainable development has long been heralded as the means by which the needs of both present and future generations can be met. However, finding a long-term balance between economic, social and environmental interests, the basic tenet of sustainable development, has proved largely illusive in practice. This book shows that while a number of legal frameworks to help promote the goal of sustainable development have been proposed at the international level they fail to fully capture the essence of sustainable development and international laws capacity to support its implementation. The book offers a critical analysis of past attempts to develop legal frameworks for promoting sustainable development at the international level, and advocates for a fresh approach based on lessons learnt from the law of international watercourses. The book is divided into four sections. The first section includes an overview of the topic area and an understanding of international law. In section two the book explores the meaning of sustainable development and considers the terms relationship with international law. A detailed analysis of how the law of international watercourses seeks to reconcile competing economic, social and environmental interests is carried out in section three. The book concludes with a section advocating the need for a fresh approach to international law and sustainable development and offering the foundations for this approach based on lessons learnt from the law of international watercourses. This title belongs to Water Law & Policy Series ISBN: 9781843390756 (Print) ISBN: 9781780402673 (eBook)

An Exploration of Fairness in International Law through the Blue Nile and GERD

ABSTRACT The principle of fairness operates alongside lofty principles of international law, such as equity and justice. However, these concepts often face criticism for being too vague to shed any meaningful light on the practical interpretation and implementation of international law within specific fields. By analysing the cooperation between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on the Blue Nile, this paper seeks to address such criticism. It suggests that the concept of fairness does have value as a framework for analysing both commitment and compliance in international law; and that exploring specific contexts, such as legal developments related to the Blue Nile, helps give it further meaning.

How has the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam changed the legal, political, economic and scientific dynamics in the Nile Basin?

ABSTRACT This issue articulates the opportunities and challenges surrounding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) through multiple disciplinary lenses: its possibilities as a basis for a new era of cooperation in the eastern Nile basin; its regional and global implications; its benefits and possible drawbacks; the benefits of cooperation and coordination in dam filling; and the need for participatory and transparent decision making.

Notification and Consultation Procedures Under the Mekong Agreement: Insights from the Xayaburi Controversy

Tensions between watercourse states are likely to escalate in the absence of effective legal frameworks by which to evaluate the impacts of large-scale unilateral water projects. Conscious of the need for such a framework, the lower Mekong River Basin States have developed the 1995 Mekong Agreement and related procedures for prior notification and consultation. The Xayaburi Hydropower Project constitutes the first project on the mainstream of the Mekong River that has been submitted to the consultation procedures under the 1995 Mekong Agreement. An analysis of the Xayaburi Project shows that both the design and implementation of the consultation process might be improved. The need to strengthen this process is particularly pertinent due to the numerous plans to further exploit the hydropower potential of the Mekong River and its tributaries. Additionally, examination of the prior consultation process under the Mekong Agreement offers valuable lessons for other international watercourses facing similar challenges.

Reflections on the Normative Prescription of Sustainable Development in Recent Transboundary Water Treaty Practice

Abstract The concept of sustainable development has gained considerable attention in the field of natural resources law and policy since the United Nations Rio Conference of 1992. The practical application of the concept has, however, proved to be one of the major challenges of the 21st Century. Due to conflicting interests between various groups, the concept has struggled to be transformed from abstract theory to practical application. The field of transboundary water law and policy is not immune from this problem. While the concept has been mentioned in most agreements dealing with transboundary waters, it is not always clear what the normative prescription of such inclusion is. This can be seen by the varying attention that the concept, and in particular its core values, has received in recent transboundary water agreements. While the agreements show a clear commitment on the side of States to work towards sustainable development, they also demonstrate that the concept has yet to be clearly prescribed in legal terms. A review of recent transboundary water agreements leads to the conclusion that, while there are some positive signs, considerable work remains to be done in order to produce practical mechanisms designed to effectively and efficiently balance the need for development with the need to protect the environment.

The UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes

transboundary water management based on effective cooperation. In this perspective, Tunisia continues reviewing and evaluating the opportunity to access new international legal instruments. Thus, in 2009, Tunisia began ratifying the 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses (entered into force in 2014). In addition, after deciding a strategy against climate change wherein water is a major challenge, Tunisia signed the Paris Agreement of December 2015 (Cop 21). These two conventions are closely linked and complementary.

Integrated Water Resources Management : STRIVER efforts to assess the current status and future possibilities in four river basins

The contemporary concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) was primarily conceived for the purpose of promoting sustainable water management. There are many elements included in modern IWRM perceptions, e.g., natural resource utilization planning combined with at strategy to balance between social, economic and environmental objectives based on an overall sustainability concept. However, the concept behind IWRM is not new. The historical development of the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) can be found in Rahaman and Varis (2005).

Integrating Water Resources Management: Interdisciplinary Methodologies and Strategies in Practice

The strategy and methodology for improved IWRM project, (STRIVER) has developed interdisciplinary methods to assess and implement IWRM. Based on the development of a multidisciplinary knowledge base assessment in all case studies (policy, social and natural sciences) and an early stage development of IWRM conceptual framework, this book investigates IWRM in the four selected twinned catchments covering six countries in Europe and Asia. Twinning activities based on a problem-based approach have been performed in four case river basins: The problems covered are water regimes in transboundary regulated rivers; environmental flow; land and water use interaction; and pollution under the IWRM framework. The research used sub-basins of each river basin in all cases to allow more detailed studies and easier integration of all stakeholders, for transferability purposes. This title belongs to European Water Research Series . Integrating Water Resources Management ISBN: 9781843393252 (Print) ISBN: 9781780401461 (eBook)

The role of valuation and bargaining in optimising transboundary watercourse treaty regimes

In the face of water scarcity, growing water demands, population increase, ecosystem degradation, or climate change, transboundary watercourse states inevitably have to make difficult decisions on how finite quantities of water are distributed. Such waters, and their associated ecosystem services, offer multiple benefits. Valuation and bargaining can play a key role in the sharing of these ecosystems services and their associated benefits across sovereign borders. Ecosystem services in transboundary watercourses essentially constitute a portfolio of assets. While challenging, their commodification, which creates property rights, supports trading. Such trading offers a means by which to resolve conflicts over competing uses and allows states to optimise their ‘portfolios’. However, despite this potential, adoption of appropriate treaty frameworks that might facilitate a market-based approach to the discovery and allocation of water-related ecosystem services at the transboundary level remains both a challenge and a topic worthy of further study. Drawing upon concepts in law and economics, this paper therefore seeks to advance the study of how treaty frameworks might be developed in a way that supports such a market-based approach to ecosystem services and transboundary waters.