LS553Q: INTERNATIONAL WATERCOURSES LAW AND POLICY (2024-2025)

The development of international watercourses law (IWL)):

• Why this topic? Competition over water, environmental and other societal challenges
• Relevant theories- Harman doctrine, community of states and limited territorial sovereignty
• The development of the UN Watercourses Convention 1997
• General policy issues

Hydrological and natural characteristics of international watercourses

• The hydrology of watercourses
• The environment and ecosystems of watercourses
• Key trends and challenges

Scope and Key Principles and Rules of IWL 

Scope:

• Defining an international watercourse
• The exclusion/inclusion of navigational issues and aquifers from the 1997 Convention

Substantive and Procedural norms:

• Equitable and reasonable utilisation and participation
• No significant harm rule
• Procedural duties -prior notification and consultation, cooperation, data and information exchange, etc.

: Conservation and institutionalised management of international watercourses

• The duty to preserve and conserve
• Protecting ecosystems
• Climate change and IWL
• The role of river basin organisations

Contemporary issues: Thinking out of the IWL box

• The Concept of Benefit Sharing
• The Water-Energy-Food nexus
• Water and the SDGs
• Linking IWL with such policy and science-based concepts

Case study one—the Nile Basin (student group presentation)

• Factual and historical issues
• The emergence of basin-wide normative and policy endeavours and challenges
• The Blue Nile dam -legal, environmental and political challenges

Case study two- the Mekong River basin (student group presentation) 

• factual and historical considerations
• the Chinese approach to water law and governance -reciprocity and equity
• the place of IWL in sharing and conserving the Mekong

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

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