Emerging Issues and Challenges in Transboundary Freshwater: The Role of Treaties and Treaty Design

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.698 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Shlomi Dinar

Keyword(s):

Water Resources ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

National Development ◽

International Agreements ◽

Political Conflict ◽

Conflict And Cooperation ◽

Emerging Issues ◽

State Cooperation ◽

Inter State

Freshwater’s transboundary nature (in the form of rivers, lakes, and underground aquifers) means that it ties countries (or riparians) in a web of interdependence. Combined with water scarcity and increased water variability, and the sheer necessity of water for survival and national development, these interdependencies may often lead to conflict. While such conflict is rarely violent in nature, political conflict over water is quite common as states diverge over how to share water or whether to develop a joint river for hydropower, say, or to use the water for agriculture. For the same reasons that water may be a source of conflict, it is also a source of cooperation. In fact, if the number of documented international agreements over shared water resources is any indication, then water’s cooperative history is a rich one. As the most important and accepted tools for formalizing inter-state cooperation, treaties have become the focus of research and analysis. While treaties do not necessarily guarantee cooperation, they do provide states with a platform for dealing with conflict as well as the means to create benefits for sustained cooperation. This also suggests that the way treaties are designed—in other words, what mechanisms and instruments are included in the agreement—is likewise relevant to analyzing conflict and cooperation.

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Importance and Role of Honorary Consuls in Exercise of Consular Functions // Značaj i uloga počasnih konzula u obavljanju konzularnih funkcija

Годишњак факултета правних наука - АПЕИРОН ◽

10.7251/gfp1808156g ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (8) ◽

pp. 156

Author(s):

Duško Glodić

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

Vienna Convention ◽

Political Sphere ◽

Legal Nature ◽

State Actors ◽

State Cooperation ◽

Made In ◽

Inter State ◽

Commercial Trade

The article explores the role and importance of honorary consuls in the exercise of consular functions assigned to them. Their commitment to the strengthening of the inter-state cooperation in the non-political sphere and the support, protection and advice provided by the honorary consuls were emphasised as the historically grounded services rendered by this category of agents. It is, however, stressed that, although the contemporary ways of communication between different state and non-state actors happen without the use of diplomatic and consular mechanisms, the honorary consuls still find their place in the relations between the states and commercial, trade and other sorts of partners based in different states. The positive International Law, including the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, as well as bilateral consular conventions, concluded between the interested parties, recognises the institutions of honorary consuls and possesses a certain set of rules that define the appointment and status of them. The article further explores the legal nature, privileges and immunities that are accorded to the honorary consuls and highlights the sets of usual and less usual consular functions that may be assigned to them by the sending state. Some exploration of both official and symbolic functions of the existence of the use of honorary consuls has been made in the article.

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Institutions and the Stability of Cooperative Arrangements under Scarcity and Variability

International Water Scarcity and Variability ◽

10.1525/california/9780520283077.003.0004 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Shlomi Dinar ◽

Ariel Dinar

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

Information Exchange ◽

International Agreements ◽

Benefit Sharing ◽

Issue Linkage ◽

Side Payments ◽

Large N ◽

The Stability

This chapter focuses on the role of institutions in facilitating treaty effectiveness. It discusses the importance of international agreements in promoting and sustaining cooperation. It considers treaty design to further reflect on the type of treaties, and the various mechanisms stipulated in these agreements, that contribute to treaty effectiveness by assuaging conflict in situations of water scarcity and increased variability. The chapter argues that the design of a treaty seems particularly relevant in regions where climate change and water variability could impact the ability of basin states to effectively manage shared water. The chapter demonstrates how various mechanisms such as different water allocation mechanisms, as well as additional stipulations, such as, side-payments, issue-linkage, benefit-sharing, adaptability, and information exchange, affect the performance of the treaty in the context of water scarcity and variability. These mechanisms are examined from an empirical and large-n perspective, assessing how treaties with such mechanisms fare compared to treaties devoid of these mechanisms.

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An Overview of Water Markets in Southern Africa: An Option for Water Management in Times of Scarcity

Water ◽

10.3390/w11051006 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 1006 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Greenwell Matchaya ◽

Luxon Nhamo ◽

Sibusiso Nhlengethwa ◽

Charles Nhemachena

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Southern Africa ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

Imperfect Competition ◽

Water Markets ◽

Water Transfers ◽

The Impact

Southern Africa faces acute water scarcity challenges due to drought recurrence, degradation of surface water resources, and the increasing demand of water from agriculture, which has to meet the growing food demands of an increasing population. These stressors require innovative solutions that ensure the sustainability of water resources, without which the consequences could be dire for a region exposed to a host of vulnerabilities, including climate change. This review outlines the role of water markets in water management in times of water scarcity, highlighting the drivers of water markets in southern Africa, such as water scarcity, transboundary nature of water resources, and their uneven distribution. The review further discusses the role of water markets in climate change adaptation. Related institutional and legal frameworks as well as water allocation mechanisms are explored, aiming at improving water markets governance. The impact of adaptation to new water regimes in the face of scarcity are assessed by considering characteristics of current markets as related to future opportunities. In a diverse region such as southern Africa with unevenly distributed water resources, advancing the concept of water markets could play an important role in mitigating water scarcity challenges and promoting regional integration through coordinated transboundary water transfers. The emergence of water markets in the region is influenced by the continued depletion of water resources, which is resulting in the adoption of innovative water marketing strategies, such as inter-farm sharing or farm joint venture systems and inter-basin and intra-basin water transfers. As the concept is new in the region, it still has challenges that include general market inefficiencies, high transaction costs, market information asymmetries, imperfect competition, and weak or absent robust institutional frameworks that can facilitate market development.

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INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS AS A SOURCE OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL LAW

Constitutional State ◽

10.18524/2411-2054.2021.43.241000 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 185-194

Author(s):

O. R. Vaitsekhovska

Keyword(s):

Legal Status ◽

International Agreements ◽

International Agreement ◽

Legal Analysis ◽

Legal Nature ◽

Terrorism Financing ◽

Set Up ◽

State Relations ◽

Inter State

The article under studies is a legal analysis of the international contractual lawmaking in the field of finance. It lays particular emphasis on the role of international financial agreements in forming the international financial order enforcement. The article contains a classification of international agreements, which directly or indirectly aim at regulating financial relations according to the following criteria: 1) the subject of legal regulations; 2) the legal status of the parties that conclude an international agreement; 3) the number of the parties in an international agreement. In addition, the paper under discussion analyzes the contents of the statutes of certain international financial organizations, whose norms play a significant role for the legal-normative constituent of the international financial order enforcement. The research indicates that in compliance with the nature of the irfunctions and the number of the parties, international financial agreements are divided into: A) the international agreements, which set up the legal basics and a single procedure of the inter-state relations in a certain field of activities of the international financial relations (the fields of currency relations, settlement relations, countering terrorism financing, etc.) andserveas a basis for concluding other agreements in a respective area: 1) the international agreements that aim at coordinating states in the international financial relations (statutes of the international financial organizations); 2) the international agreements that have a mixed legal nature in the context of the ultimate legal entities, to which most of the provisions of the agreement are directed. Such inter-state agreements make the states fulfil their obligations by implementing the international norms into their national legislations, which concern the financial relations between legal and juridical persons. B) The international agreements, which contain individually determined financial norms (on the issues of financing, investing, etc.).

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Ensuring access to water in an emergency context: Towards an overexploitation and contamination of water resources?

Social & Legal Studies ◽

10.1177/09646639211031626 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 096466392110316

Author(s):

Chloé Nicolas-Artero

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Water Resources ◽

Qualitative Methods ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

Water Rights ◽

Environmental Crisis ◽

Supply Network ◽

Mining Pollution ◽

Access To Water

This article shows how geo-legal devices created to deal with environmental crisis situations make access to drinking water precarious and contribute to the overexploitation and contamination of water resources. It relies on qualitative methods (interviews, observations, archive work) to identify and analyse two geo-legal devices applied in the case study of the Elqui Valley in Chile. The first device, generated by the Declaration of Water Scarcity, allows private sanitation companies to concentrate water rights and extend their supply network, thus producing an overexploitation of water resources. In the context of mining pollution, the second device is structured around the implementation of the Rural Drinking Water Programme and the distribution of water by tankers, which has made access to drinking water more precarious for the population and does nothing to prevent pollution.

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Who’s Afraid of Adversariality? Conflict and Cooperation in Argumentation

Topoi ◽

10.1007/s11245-020-09736-9 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Catarina Dutilh Novaes

Keyword(s):

Conflict Management ◽

Recent Literature ◽

Intrinsic Property ◽

Prima Facie ◽

Consensus Building ◽

Conflict And Cooperation ◽

Contextual Features

AbstractSince at least the 1980s, the role of adversariality in argumentation has been extensively discussed within different domains. Prima facie, there seem to be two extreme positions on this issue: argumentation should (ideally at least) never be adversarial, as we should always aim for cooperative argumentative engagement; argumentation should be and in fact is always adversarial, given that adversariality (when suitably conceptualized) is an intrinsic property of argumentation. I here defend the view that specific instances of argumentation are (and should be) adversarial or cooperative to different degrees. What determines whether an argumentative situation should be primarily adversarial or primarily cooperative are contextual features and background conditions external to the argumentative situation itself, in particular the extent to which the parties involved have prior conflicting or else convergent interests. To further develop this claim, I consider three teloi that are frequently associated with argumentation: the epistemic telos, the consensus-building telos, and the conflict management telos. I start with a brief discussion of the concepts of adversariality, cooperation, and conflict in general. I then sketch the main lines of the debates in the recent literature on adversariality in argumentation. Next, I discuss the three teloi of argumentation listed above in turn, emphasizing the roles of adversariality and cooperation for each of them.

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The Role of Technology in Greenhouse Agriculture: Towards a Sustainable Intensification in Campo de Dalías (Almería, Spain)

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11010101 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 101

Author(s):

Antonio J. Mendoza-Fernández ◽

Araceli Peña-Fernández ◽

Luis Molina ◽

Pedro A. Aguilera

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Economic Development ◽

Water Resources ◽

Natural Resources ◽

Temporal Evolution ◽

Technological Development ◽

Sustainable Intensification ◽

Short Period ◽

Cultivation Techniques

Campo de Dalías, located in southeastern Spain, is the greatest European exponent of greenhouse agriculture. The development of this type of agriculture has led to an exponential economic development of one of the poorest areas of Spain, in a short period of time. Simultaneously, it has brought about a serious alteration of natural resources. This article will study the temporal evolution of changes in land use, and the exploitation of groundwater. Likewise, this study will delve into the technological development in greenhouses (irrigation techniques, new water resources, greenhouse structures or improvement in cultivation techniques) seeking a sustainable intensification of agriculture under plastic. This sustainable intensification also implies the conservation of existing natural areas.

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