The Third Wave of Normativity in Global Water Law: The Duty to Cooperate in the Peaceful Management of the World's Water Resources: An Emerging Obligation Erga Omnes?
Journal of Water Law, Vol. 23, p. 51, 2013
15 Pages Posted: 1 Dec 2013 Last revised: 10 Dec 2013
Date Written: November 30, 2013
Abstract
To meet the challenges of the increased competition for the planet's freshwater resources, it is necessary to align international water law with the United Nation's sustainable development goals (SDGs).This work considers the evolution of the duty to cooperate in the context of shared transboundary waters and argues that we now witness the emergence of the duty to cooperate in the peaceful management of the world's water resources as an obligationerga omnes imposable on all states.
At the heart of our argument are three fundamental tenets: (i) international law has the inherent capacity to, and is in the process of, transforming to address global water-related imperatives;(ii) the rules of international law that apply to shared water resources require a consolidated and a consolidating framework in order to address the global water crisis within and across national borders; (iii) the very notion of state sovereignty, recast in our contemporary setting, supports and provides the legal parameters for the crystallisation of an obligationerga omnesto ensure 'water for all' as a duty and entitlement of the international community as a whole.
Keywords: international water law, transboundary water law, water security
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