The Ilisu Dam and Its Impact on the Mesopotamian Marshes of Iraq: Implications for the Future Directions of International Water Law

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-92
Author(s):  
Raquella Moea Thaman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Collaboration ◽  
Conflict Avoidance ◽  
Water Law ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
The World ◽  
Mesopotamian Marshes ◽  
International Water Law ◽  
International Water ◽  
Transboundary Watercourses

Abstract The law of international watercourses has been successful in providing some measure of assistance in conflict avoidance and resolution. However, evolution of this body of law, which has been gradual in nature, is facing challenges adapting to climate change and its grave consequences. Climate change is causing the glaciers of the world to melt, and resulting in unpredictable shifts in patterns of rainfall, thus seriously impacting shared watercourses. The history and ecology of the Tigris Euphrates Basin, and the issues surrounding Turkey’s recent impoundment of water behind the Ilisu Dam on the Tigris, provide an example highlighting such challenges. This monograph argues that international collaboration over transboundary watercourses is imperative for maintaining peace and stability and should force us to think of new ways to address these newly emerging and growing challenges in this field.

scholarly journals Ecosystem Services and International Water Law: towards a more effective determination and implementation of Equity?

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Alistair Rieu-Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
Water Law ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
Important Means ◽  
International Water Law ◽  
International Water ◽  
Transboundary Watercourses

Interest in an ecological- or an ecosystem-centred approach to natural resource management is not new, and in the case of water management has been very well emphasised for many decades. Recently however, a new focus has emerged around the identification and assessment of ecosystem services, and the potential to somehow use valuation of these services as a basis for more effective management of natural and human-linked systems. Despite this growing recognition, attempts to apply such an approach to transboundary watercourses are few and far between. While key principles of international water law, for example, equitable and reasonable utilisation, are not in conflict with an ecosystem services approach; significant challenges remain in its implementation.  However, as the methods and tools used to identify ecosystem services improve, it is likely that such an approach will offer an important means by which to reconcile competing interests over shared watercourses in the future.

Transboundary watercourses, dams and human migration: an international water law perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-175
Author(s):  
Tamar Meshel
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Human Migration ◽  
Water Law ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Significant Harm ◽  
International Water Law ◽  
International Water ◽  
Transboundary Watercourses

This article examines the potential contribution of international water law (IWL) to alleviating the negative cross-border impacts of ‘dam-induced migration’, the displacement of individuals or communities resulting from dam construction. While much has been written on efforts to deal with this global problem in other areas of international law, the application of IWL in this context has yet to be meaningfully explored. But since dams are frequently constructed on transboundary watercourses, the principles of IWL (no significant harm, equitable and reasonable utilisation, and the duty to cooperate) may prove relevant and useful to mitigating the harmful cross-border impacts of dam-induced migration. The no significant harm principle requires States to comply with a due diligence standard of conduct designed to avoid, minimise, or compensate for significant harm that might result from the use of shared watercourses, including harm to human life or health. The equitable and reasonable utilisation principle obligates each basin State to use an international watercourse in a manner that is equitable and reasonable vis-à-vis the other States sharing it. The duty to cooperate requires States to collaborate in the management and use of shared watercourses and sets out concrete measures to enable collaboration, such as information exchange, consultations, and the establishment of joint institutions. Taken together, these IWL principles can effectively guide the planning, construction, and operation of dams on shared watercourses. Applying them to the specific issue of dam-induced migration, moreover, could promote inter-State cooperation and accountability, facilitate the resolution of disputes, and alleviate negative cross-border impacts. In this way, IWL can supplement other areas of international law in providing a comprehensive solution to the growing problem of dam-induced migration.

Adapting Watercourse Agreements to Developments in International Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-88
Author(s):  
Maria A. Gwynn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Water Law ◽  
South American ◽  
Hydroelectric Energy ◽  
South American Region ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
International Water Law ◽  
International Water

AbstractThe United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UN Watercourses Convention) recommends that states apply and adapt their watercourse agreements to the provisions of the UN Watercourses Convention. To explore the advantages of abiding to crucial developments in international water law, environmental law, and climate change law, this monograph will analyze the most important hydroelectric energy treaty in the South American region, the Itaipu Treaty. The monograph will argue that adapting watercourse agreements to developments in international law provides a way to foster sustainable development for the treaty parties, the countries sharing the watercourse ecosystem, as well as the international community as a whole.

scholarly journals Future trajectories of festival research

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879762199293
Author(s):  
Michelle Duffy ◽  
Judith Mair
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Tourism Research ◽  
Sense Of Purpose ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
The World

In their editorial for the first issue of Tourist Studies, Adrian Franklin and Mike Crang made us aware that tourism research had shifted to an exploration of the extraordinary everyday where ‘more or less everyone now lives in a world rendered or reconfigured as interesting, entertaining and attractive – for tourists’. From our standpoint 20 years later, we suggest this particular departure point has important insights to offer our understanding of a quintessential tourism event, that of the festival, which now intervenes in daily life in all manner of ways. In this commentary, we present a reflective commentary on recent scholarship that advocates for more rigour in festival studies, with greater theory development and testing within the festival context, and how this work is suggestive of future directions for festival research. We present several areas that are ripe for further research, particularly given the tumultuous nature of the world we are living in, such as the challenges of climate change and how we might socialise in a post-Covid world. Much has changed in the 20 years since the inception of Tourist Studies, but festivals remain resilient – they will re-emerge in future, perhaps not unscathed but with a renewed sense of purpose.

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