Global Water Governance and the Rise of the Constitutional Regulatory State in Colombia

Abstract

This chapter examines water supply regulation in Colombia. It begins with an overview of the political and institutional landscape in Colombia. It then explores the emergence of water supply as a global issue and explains the central traits of global water governance (GWG). Next, it considers the specific mechanisms through which GWG is implemented in Colombia, factoring in the notion of the ‘constitutional regulatory state’, where the mindset of efficiency-based regulation is balanced by a human rights discourse, represented in this country by the Constitutional Court. Finally, two specific instances of the practice of the constitutional regulatory state are explored. First, the Constitutional Court's interpretation of ‘efficiency’ is used to analyse the role of the regulatory mindset in the Court' s reasoning. Second, the debate on the human right to water is used to explore the impact of neoconstitutionalism on the regulator.