Water law is the field of law concerned with the ownership, control, and use of water resources, both surface and subsurface. Although most closely related to property law, recent developments in other legal fields, especially in environmental law, have heavily influenced the interpretation,...

Although climate change is expected to have major consequences that affect the global environment in its broadest sense, one of the earliest and most direct impacts will be on Earth's fresh water systems. While some regions will experience increased precipitation, others will suffer serious...

International water law is generally applied to disputes between states concerning surface bodies of water crossing international borders. Disputes and policy-making over transboundary ground water resources, however, have traditionally been determined on an ad hoc basis or based on regional...

In, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Water: Evaluating Water as a Human Right and the Duties and Obligations it Creates," author Amy Hardberger discusses the reasoning behind establishing access to clean water as a human right. She argues that access to clean water is already considered...

In “From Policy to Reality: Maximizing Urban Water Conservation in Texas”, author Amy Hardberger explains the need for more efficient water use in urban areas. By analyzing the effectiveness of municipal use plans, she is able to make recommendations for more efficient water planning in the...

The dispute over the Silala (or Siloli) Basin, shared by Bolivia and Chile, illustrates the importance of history, the role of indigenous communities, and the effects of differences in national socio-economic philosophies informing water resource management in international negotiations...

A central challenge facing nations today is how to ensure that both people and the natural environment have adequate freshwater to sustain and nourish their existence. In many parts of the world, communities actually compete with nature for dwindling supplies, to the detriment of both. Most...

The Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 21 May 1997 (UN 1997a). It was drafted to articulate and codify the prevailing state practice and opinio juris – an action taken out of a sense of legal...

Disagreements over the management and allocation of transboundary freshwater resources have become increasingly prominent in international relations. Serious diplomatic tensions surround management of the Jordan, Mekong, Nile, Rio Grande, Silala, Syr Darya and Amu Darya, and Tigris and Euphrates...

The growth in global population and economic development has resulted in tremendous pressures on existing sources of fresh water. Human water use over the past three centuries increased by a factor of thirty-five and is growing by four to eight percent annually. Coupled with recurring...