The UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) has been in force for almost 20 years. While it has strongly impacted cooperation on the ground in the ECE region and beyond, it has strangely not attracted much attention from scholars. While several articles and studies have nevertheless been published on the Convention, it has never been the focus of an academic publication.
The UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes: Its Contribution to International Water Cooperation recently published by Brill/Nijhoff, fills this gap in an impressive manner. It provides invaluable insights into the contribution of the Convention towards transboundary water cooperation via its legal provisions, accompanying institutional framework and subsidiary policy mechanisms.
The book is a collaborative effort of legal experts, representatives of Parties to the Convention, secretariat staff and many more. In 36 chapters, they address a broad range of issues, such as the Convention’s development and evolution, its global opening, its relationship with other multilateral agreements, its regulatory framework and general principles, tools for reducing transboundary pollution, procedural rules and compliance and liability provisions, as well as data collection and information sharing. Its impact on the ground is also described, for example, in the Danube Basin.
The book was edited by some of the most well-known international water lawyers, namely Attila Tanzi from the University of Bologna; Owen McIntyre from University College Cork, National University of Ireland; Alexandros Kolliopoulos from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece; Alistair Rieu-Clarke from the University of Dundee; and Rémy Kinna of Oxfam Australia. The book was launched on 27 May at the University of Edinburgh.
For more information please see http://www.brill.com/products/book/unece-convention-protection-and-use-transboundary-watercourses-and-international-lakes.