The role and relevance of the Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers in the European context

In 2008, the UN International Law Commission adopted a set of 19 articles as a contribution to the codification and development of international groundwater law, and submitted them to the UN General Assembly. In view of the ILC's report, UNGA Resolution 63/124 takes note of the Draft Articles; commends them to the attention of governments; encourages States to apply and adjust the Draft Articles as a basis to negotiate specific aquifer agreements; and decides provisionally to examine the question of the final form that might be given to those articles at that body's 66 th Session. The Draft Articles offer an important basis for the progressive development of the law governing transboundary aquifers, in particular by acknowledging the complementary relationship between universal and regional or aquifer-specific legal instruments. In this context, the paper will assess the potential role and relevance of the Draft Articles' text, as it now stands, to guide European States in the sound management of the aquifers shared in the region. It will do so by comparing and evaluating the relationship between the Draft Articles and relevant European legal instruments, with particular focus on the issues of sustainability, planned measures, monitoring, emergencies, and the geographic scope of freshwater agreements. The analysis will show that, while these global and regional instruments can be mutually supportive, some important differences exist in the extent and content of the obligations under each of them

A critical analysis of the 2008 Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers in the European context

In 2008, the International Law Commission adopted a set of 19 articles that aim to contribute to the codification and development of the law governing transboundary aquifers. In 2009, the UN General Assembly a) took note of the draft articles; b) commended them to the attention of governments without prejudice to the question of their future adoption or other appropriate action; c) encouraged the states concerned to make appropriate bilateral or regional management arrangements, taking into account the draft articles; and d) decided provisionally to examine the question of the form that might be given to those articles at its 66th Session. The ILC Draft Articles offer an important and valuable basis for the progressive development of international groundwater law, including through the negotiation of future agreements applying and adjusting draft articles' provisions to specific regions or transboundary aquifers. In this sense, both the ILC Draft Articles and the above UNGA resolution address the complementary relationship between universal and regional (or aquifer-specific) legal instruments. In this context, the paper will conduct a comparative analysis and evaluate the relationship between the ILC Draft Articles and relevant laws applicable to the UNECE region, with special focus on EU legal instruments. The analysis will show that these global and regional developments are mutually supportive, but some important differences exist in the extent and content of the obligations under each of them. The paper will consider such differences, in particular, in the context of requirements pertaining to the monitoring and sustainable use of recharging aquifers

The right to water in a transboundary context: emergence of seminal trends

Water is becoming increasingly scarce. Unequal geographic distribution of freshwater resources puts populations in certain regions at risk. Legal development has been responding to this human vulnerability. The human right to water is receiving increasing recognition. Along with growing recognition of the right to water comes the identification of clear legal contours of State obligations with respect to water availability, access and supply, as well as with respect to protection of these individual water rights. Questions remain however as to whether there exist obligations between States to overcome the international imbalance in water distribution. Recent instruments of transboundary water law have introduced new levels of protection of vital human water needs. But are “water-rich” States under any legal obligation to provide the resource to “water-poor” States? This paper explores the question from the perspective of international water law as well as with respect to human rights law

Climate and Security: Evidence, Emerging Risks and a New Agenda

ReviewJournal ArticleThis article is part of a Special Issue on “Climate and Security: Evidence, Emerging Risks, and a New Agenda” edited by François Gemenne, Neil Adger, Jon Barnett, and Geoff Dabelko.There are diverse linkages between climate change and security including risks of conflict, national security concerns, critical national infrastructure, geo-political rivalries and threats to human security. We review analysis of these domains from primary research and from policy prescriptive and advocacy sources. We conclude that much analysis over-emphasises deterministic mechanisms between climate change and security. Yet the climate-security nexus is more complex than it appears and requires attention from across the social sciences. We review the robustness of present social sciences analysis in assessing the causes and consequences of climate change on human security, and identify new areas of research. These new areas include the need to analyse the absence of conflict in the face of climate risks and the need to expand the range of issues accounted for in analysis of climate and security including the impacts of mitigation response on domains of security. We argue for the necessity of robust theories that explain causality and associations, and the need to include theories of asymmetric power relations in explaining security dimensions. We also highlight the dilemmas of how observations and historical analysis of climate and security dimensions may be limited as the climate changes in ways that present regions with unprecedented climate risks. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht