The River Basin in History and Law
The River Basin in History and Law

Author: Ludwik A. Teclaff

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 9401510253

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Fresh water is one of man's most vital needs. The distribution of water within river basins has a direct bearing on the organization of water resources development to meet this ever-expanding need. River basins, despite their very great diversity in other respects, have one physical characteristic in common: each is a more or less self-contained unit within whose bounds all the surface and part or all of the ground waters form an interconnected, interdependent system. This inter dependence has such far-reaching implications - for pollution and flood control, apportionment of supply, relations between upstream and downstream riparians, to mention only a few examples - that the river basin has become almost universally accepted (within the past 20 or 30 years at least) as the unit of optimal water resources de velopment. Professor Teclaff's work (which was originally submitted to the New York University School of Law as a doctoral dissertation) is the first fully developed response to the important resolution passed by the International Law Association at its New York meeting in I958 recognizing the legal nature of the international river basin. His study quite properly, therefore, poses the question whether the adoption of the river basin unit is a temporary phenomenon, reflecting the current stage of technology and of administrative, economic, and legal thought on water resources development, or whether the de terminative influence of the river basin's physical unity which has always operated in the past will continue to operate in the future.

A History of Water, Series III, Volume 2: Sovereignty and International Water Law
A History of Water, Series III, Volume 2: Sovereignty and International Water Law

Author: Terje Tvedt

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-05-30

Total Pages: 745

ISBN-13: 1786739615

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As global climate change threatens to change radically both the political and physical climate with regard to water issues, so a reassessment of some of the fundamental principles of international water law is emerging. One of the most important principles being reassessed is the sovereign equality of states. This volume brings together more than thirty leading international water and legal specialists to explore the development and changing relationship between water, state sovereignty and international law. Offering fresh insights into one of the most pressing issues in global water policy, Sovereignty and International Water Law will form an essential reference for water professionals, legal specialists and policy makers alike.

Through the Waters
Through the Waters

Author: Idaho State Bar. Water Law Section

Publisher:

Published: 2014-08-24

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 9780945648192

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More than 30 of the central participants in the West's largest water adjudication talk about why and how it happened - and how, improbably, it has come to a successful conclusion.

International Watercourses Law in the Nile River Basin
International Watercourses Law in the Nile River Basin

Author: Tadesse Kassa Woldetsadik

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-06-26

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 113512695X

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The Nile River and its basin extend over a distinctive geophysical cord connecting eleven sovereign states from Egypt to Tanzania, which are home to an estimated population of 422.2 million people. The Nile is an essential source of water for domestic, industrial and agricultural uses throughout the basin, yet for more than a century it has been at the centre of continuous and conflicting claims and counter-claims to rights of utilization of the resource. In this book the author examines the multifaceted legal regulation of the Nile. He re-constructs the legal and historical origin and functioning of the British Nile policies in Ethiopia by examining the composition of the Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1902, and analyses its ramifications on contemporary riparian discourse involving Ethiopia and Sudan. The book also reflects on two fairly established legal idioms - the natural and historical rights expressions – which constitute central pillars of the claims of downstream rights in the Nile basin; the origin, essence and legal authority of the notions has been assessed on the basis of the normative dictates of contemporary international watercourses law. Likewise, the book examines the non-treaty based claims of rights of the basin states to the Nile waters, setting out what the equitable uses principle entails as a means of reconciling competing riparian interests, and most importantly, how its functioning affects contemporary legal settings. The author then presents the concentrated diplomatic movements of the basin states in negotiations on the Transitional Institutional Mechanism of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) - pursued since the 1990’s, and explains why the substance of water use rights still continued to be perceived diversely among basin states. Finally, the specific legal impediments that held back progress in negotiations on the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework are presented in context.

Mississippi River Tragedies
Mississippi River Tragedies

Author: Christine A. Klein

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2014-02-28

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1479825387

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Read a free excerpt here! American engineers have done astounding things to bend the Mississippi River to their will: forcing one of its tributaries to flow uphill, transforming over a thousand miles of roiling currents into a placid staircase of water, and wresting the lower half of the river apart from its floodplain. American law has aided and abetted these feats. But despite our best efforts, so-called “natural disasters” continue to strike the Mississippi basin, as raging floodwaters decimate waterfront communities and abandoned towns literally crumble into the Gulf of Mexico. In some places, only the tombstones remain, leaning at odd angles as the underlying soil erodes away. Mississippi River Tragedies reveals that it is seductively deceptive—but horribly misleading—to call such catastrophes “natural.” Authors Christine A. Klein and Sandra B. Zellmer present a sympathetic account of the human dreams, pride, and foibles that got us to this point, weaving together engaging historical narratives and accessible law stories drawn from actual courtroom dramas. The authors deftly uncover the larger story of how the law reflects and even amplifies our ambivalent attitude toward nature—simultaneously revering wild rivers and places for what they are, while working feverishly to change them into something else. Despite their sobering revelations, the authors’ final message is one of hope. Although the acknowledgement of human responsibility for unnatural disasters can lead to blame, guilt, and liability, it can also prod us to confront the consequences of our actions, leading to a liberating sense of possibility and to the knowledge necessary to avoid future disasters.

Principles of Water Law and Administration
Principles of Water Law and Administration

Author: Dante A. Caponera

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-05-03

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 0429879431

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This book, which was first published in 1992 and then updated in 2007, provides a tool for dealing with the legal and institutional aspects of water resources management within national contexts and at the level of transboundary water resources. Like its two previous editions, it seeks to cover all aspects that need to be known in order to attain good water governance, but it provides updates concerning developments since 2007. These relate, inter alia, to the following: - the “greening” of water law, which calls for the progressive integration of environmental law principles into domestic and international water law; - the adoption, by the International Law Commission in 2008, of the Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers, and subsequent developments; - the emergence of the right to water as a self-standing human right; - the adoption of domestic water laws supporting integrated water resources management (IWRM) and enhanced public participation in planning and decision making; - the integration into these laws of tools facilitating adaptive water management as a response to climate variability and change; - progress in the implementation of EU law; - recent international agreements and judicial decisions; - efforts of regional organizations other than the EU to steer cooperation in the management of transboundary water resources and the harmonization of national laws; - institutional mechanisms for the management of transboundary water resources (surface and underground). Unique in its scope and nature, the book identifies the legal and institutional issues arising in connection with water resources management and provides guidelines for possible solutions in a manner accessible to a wide range of readers. Thus, it is a useful reference for lawyers and non-lawyers — engineers, hydrologists, hydrogeologists, economists, sociologists — dealing with water resources within government institutions, river basin commissions, international organizations, financing institutions and academic institutions, among other things, and also for students of disciplines related to water resources.

Unsettled Waters
Unsettled Waters

Author: Eric P. Perramond

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2018-11-06

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0520971124

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In the American West, water adjudication lawsuits are adversarial, expensive, and lengthy. Unsettled Waters is the first detailed study of water adjudications in New Mexico. The state envisioned adjudication as a straightforward accounting of water rights as private property. However, adjudication resurfaced tensions and created conflicts among water sovereigns at multiple scales. Based on more than ten years of fieldwork, this book tells a fascinating story of resistance involving communal water cultures, Native rights and cleaved identities, clashing experts, and unintended outcomes. Whether the state can alter adjudications to meet the water demands in the twenty-first century will have serious consequences.

Blood and Water
Blood and Water

Author: David Gilmartin

Publisher:

Published: 2020-04-14

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 0520355539

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"The book is a history of the political and environmental transformation of the Indus basin as a result of the modern construction of the world's largest, integrated irrigation system. Begun under British colonial rule in the 19th century, this transformation continued after the region was divided between two new states, India and Pakistan, in 1947. Massive irrigation works have turned an arid region into one of dense agricultural population, but its political legacies continue to shape the politics and statecraft of the region"--Provided by publisher.

The Role of Law in Transboundary River Basin Disputes
The Role of Law in Transboundary River Basin Disputes

Author: Chukwuebuka Edum

Publisher:

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781032551135

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"This book examines the role legal rules play in the resolution of disputes in transboundary river basins. When states fail to resolve disputes over shared water resources, many cast such failures on inadequate or ineffective legal rules. With this view in mind, this book examines the role that legal rules do, and can, play in aiding the peaceful settlement of disputes and furthering cooperation between different parties. Building on the interactional theory of law, the book formulates three analytical frameworks: the effect of norm-generating processes, the effects of water-related agreements and/or arrangements in the basins, and the effect of international water. It uses these frameworks to assess the role of law in the processes of cooperation and peaceful settlement of disputes on transboundary river basin by drawing on four illustrative case studies: the Jordan River Basin, the Nile River Basin, the Mekong River Basin and the Indus River Basin. In doing so, the book presents a unique perspective on the multi-functional role of legal rules in those processes. Tapping into the global discussion on water security and water-related conflicts, this book stimulates readers to explore broader or interdisciplinary perspectives for understanding water-related issues. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars interested in water resource management, water law, environmental politics, conflict resolution and sustainable development more generally"--