The U.N. Watercourse Convention and Technological Innovation

Abstract

This paper was prepared for the UNESCO "UN Watercourse Convention Global Initiative" Symposium held at the University of Dundee in April 2012. This paper evaluates how the United Nations Convention on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (the “Watercourse Convention”) governs new and developing technologies that can both aggravate and mitigate conflict arising in international river basins. Using the examples of desalination and deep fossil aquifer drilling technologies, this paper also proposes an interpretation of the principles of the Watercourse Convention intended to better facilitate responsible development and implementation of new or developing technologies in international watercourses.

Keywords: international law, water, technology