Following the proper channels: tributaries in the Mekong legal regime

Water Policy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 991-1014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bennett L. Bearden
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Modern Trend ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Legal Regimes ◽  
Governance Analysis

The Mekong is the archetypal dissevered river basin, separated, divided into parts and broken up by ambiguous and undefined terms in the 1995 Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin. The treaty's text generalizes and redefines the concept of a river basin in which tributaries are marginalized and headwaters are excluded, yet on paper the 1995 Mekong Agreement creates the legal fiction of a holistic water resources management paradigm primarily by focusing on the ‘imported’ (Affeltranger, 2005, p. 54) concept of sustainable development. In effect, transboundary tributaries in the Mekong legal regime are managed by each state unilaterally through application of the limiting language embodied in Article 5(A) which emphasizes hydro-sovereignty. The modern trend and badge of responsibility are to provide a legal framework for the entire watercourse, defined as including its tributaries, and to promote basin-wide governance. Analysis of selected legal regimes and case law demonstrates that ironically, despite their volumetric contributions to flow, tributaries remain at the margin of many legal regimes of international and interstate watercourses including the Mekong. The Lower Mekong River Basin states should consider use of joint development agreements (JDAs), sub-compacts or subsidiary agreements for negotiating and dealing with intrabasin water use and interbasin water diversions on tributaries.

The legal regime of the Mekong River: a look back and some proposals for the way ahead

Water Policy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 798-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bennett L. Bearden
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Lao Pdr ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Mekong River Commission ◽  
Development Paradigm

In 1957, the four lower Mekong River states jointly organized the development of the basin and established a legal regime that has spanned five decades of cooperation. In 1995, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam concluded the Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin and formed the Mekong River Commission, which has been lauded as the most progressive of river institutions and a model for the world. At the core of the 1995 Mekong Agreement is the concept of sustainable development. Guided by this sustainable development paradigm, the Lower Mekong River Basin states attempt to balance the maintenance of water quantity with protection of water quality, and agree to cooperate and use the Mekong's water resources in a manner in which the river system's environmental conditions and ecological balance are conserved and maintained. However, development of the Mekong and its tributaries has rendered the efficacy of the Mekong legal regime to support holistic water resources management questionable. More than ten years of experience has shown that there are aspects of the 1995 Mekong Agreement that should be strengthened in order to secure the environmental, economic and social benefits that it promises.

Vietnam and the sustainable development of the Mekong river basis

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (11) ◽  
pp. 261-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Nhan Quang
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Mekong Delta ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Mekong River Commission ◽  
Set Up

Vietnam is a riparian country located in most downstream area of the Mekong river basin which is also shared by other states namely China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. While the Central Highlands of Vietnam has a great potential for hydropower development in tributaries of Mekong river, the Mekong delta in Vietnam territory is rich in natural resources which are favorable for agricultural development. However, besides local constraints which have being gradually remedied by Vietnam, the development of the Mekong delta is subject to, in both terms of quantity and quality, availability of water resources which relates to the water use of or discharge into the river of upper riparians. With a view to co-developing these resources in a sustainable and mutual benefit manner, Vietnam has cooperated with other states through framework of the Mekong River Commission set up by the 1995 Mekong Agreement. This paper describes the strategy and action plan applied by Viet Nam National Mekong Committee to reach the sustainable development of the Mekong river basin in general and of Vietnam parts located in the Mekong basin in particular.

scholarly journals Can A Transnational Law Approach Offer A Better Understanding of International Law’s Contribution to Sustainable Hydropower Projects? A Test Case from the Mekong River Basin

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-68
Author(s):  
Laure-Elise Mayard
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Law ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
Transnational Law ◽  
The One ◽  
Development Objectives

Hydropower regulation involves an increasingly complex set of actors, scales and legal regimes. The role that international law plays in regulating hydropower, and other sustainable development issues, is challenged by this pluralism because of international law’s restrictive traditional theoretical framework, which appears to be ill-equipped to fully grasp and represent significant features of pluralistic regulation. A broader conceptualization of international law could create a more pluralist, holistic and integrated approach to regulation, making it more attuned to reality and to sustainable development objectives. This article adopts a transnational law approach embracing in a more flexible manner different elements which influence regulation and which escape existing legal categories. Hydropower projects in the Lower Mekong River Basin illustrate the mismatch between regulation mainly focused on the State, investment-related actors and regimes of large projects, on the one hand, and the growing pluralism driven by the involvement of non-State actors, specificities of environmental regulation and different levels of inquiry, on the other hand. The analysis explores the ‘blind spots’ of international law in its regulation of hydropower projects and considers the possibilities in which a transnational law approach broadens the vision of existing international law to be more pluralist.

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