Mexico and the United States Assume a Legal Duty to Provide Colorado River Delta Restoration Flows: An Important International Environmental and Water Law Precedent

Abstract

In 2012, Mexico and the United States interpreted a treaty allocating the use of the Colorado River to protect a stressed delta in Mexico by establishing a pilot programme delivering a base flow to the Delta. Minute 319 is a possible first step toward a permanent adaptive management regime for the Delta because it sets three important international water and environmental law precedents. First, it is a de facto implementation of the ecosystem conservation mandates of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non‐navigational Uses of International Watercourses. Second, Minute 319 is equally recognition of the emerging duty of riparian States to cooperate in the long‐term management of shared rivers. Third, although Minute 319 was the product of sovereign‐to‐sovereign negotiations, it was made possible by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). It thus illustrates the important role that NGOs can play in the implementation of international environmental and water law.