River Dispute Research Articles

Navigating International River Disputes to Avert Conflict

AbstractBuilding on the findings from the International Negotiation's 2000 issue on negotiations in international watercourses and the major advances in the field during the past nine years, this issue seeks to advance our knowledge about the management of international river disputes. Collectively, the articles in this issue move beyond the simple dichotomy of conflict and cooperation to suggest the possibility that both are often simultaneously present within a basin and should be studied as such. Using a diversity of methodological approaches from comparative case studies to single case studies to quantitative analysis, the articles also illustrate the growth of institutionalization within river basins and their contribution to conflict management. Moreover, the articles advance our knowledge of the role of the relative distribution of power within the basin on the resolution of water disputes and management of resources. Some scholars find power asymmetry important for treaty formation, while others suggest that issue linkages and side payments can provide weaker riparians with the means to gain from cooperation.

Capability, Sustainability, and Collective Action: An Examination of a River Water Dispute

In this paper, a framework is developed to consider collective action, sustainability and the capability approach with regard to resolution of water disputes, followed by a brief discussion of how identity can hinder cooperation or the development of universalism. This framework is then examined with a case study of the Cauvery river dispute in India. At the heart of river water disputes are issues related to justice and fairness, which depend to a significant extent on: how citizens perceive their claims over river water (shaped by cultural and historical factors); the extent to which citizens are able to collectivize their claims through location, economic activity and identity, and use their voice to influence the state; the extent to which the state policy and actions reflect the ‘voice’ and collective interests of different groups; and how the various riparian states recognize and deal with each others' claims. The framework discussed here suggests that the capability approach provides us with a much broader framework than collective action or Robert Solow's sustainability as inter‐generational fairness. These are conjectures for further exploration.

International Law and Interstate River Disputes

IN MAY of this year a Special Master for the United States Supreme Court reported certain determinations which may well be critical to the future development of Arizona and California.' His report climaxed a thirty-year dispute involving the rights of these states to the millions of acre feet of water which flow through the Colorado River each year.2 The Master's particular findings have been viewed as assuring the future growth of Arizona while committing California to a multibillion dollar canal system to avoid serious water shortages in arid southern California within ten years.3 Similar disputes involving interstate rivers have occupied the Court's attention during the past thirty years,4 and with the demands expected to be made on natural waterways by the burgeoning western populace,5 we may expect a recurrence of such contests in the future. This is particularly likely due to the absence of clear and suitable standards having been promulgated by the Court in the past. The fact is that nonstatutory federal law relevant to the apportionment of interstate rivers is scanty and uneven,6 providing few guides to states concerned with the diversion of interstate rivers for internal uses. Moreover, the states have not been free to rely on the application of their own water law as binding on other quasi-sovereign

Water wars: fact or fiction?

It is often said that future wars will be fought over water, not oil. These water wars are predicted to take place over the sharing of international rivers. Recently, the world has witnessed several inter-state river-sharing disputes, but almost all of them have not crossed the critical threshold of becoming violent. Rather, most of these river disputes are being addressed through bilateral riparian cooperative arrangements. These agreements are primarily coming up on the rivers, which have potential for further water exploitation. However, to find a lasting solution and to strengthen the river sharing arrangements, this article argues for the water issue to be addressed comprehensively in the basin, by taking into account both the demand as well as the supply side of the scarce resource.

The Hungary-Slovakia Danube River dispute: implications for sustainable development and equitable utilization of natural resources in international law

The Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project dispute is one of several controversies that have surrounded the use of Europe's second longest river - the Danube. It is a dispute that rocked Hungary and Czechoslovakia for many years before reaching the International Court of Justice. At the very heart of the matter are international environmental law issues, in particular, sustainable development and equitable utilisation of international watercourses. The authors analyse the background of the dispute, the September 1997 International Court of Justice's decision, and the post-case developments that have since taken place. The paper seeks to determine the extent to which these international law concepts were given effect in the ICJ decision. The writers also question how effectively the ICJ addressed the issues that were presented to it by the parties before finally considering how the competing interests could have been balanced within the framework of these concepts. The paper concludes that the ICJ decision was largely non-committal to the real issues facing the parties and that this might carry some adverse implications for similar future cases.

Ethiopia, the Sudan, and Egypt: The Nile River Dispute

The Nile flows for 6,700 kilometres through ten countries in north-eastern Africa – Rwanda, Burundi, Zaïre/Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Sudan, and Egypt – before reaching the Mediterranean, and is the longest international river system in the world – see Map 1. Its two main tributaries converge at Khartoum: the White Nile, which originates from Burundi and flows through the Equatorial Lakes, provides a small but steady flow that is fed by the eternal snows of the Ruwenzori (the ‘rain giver’) mountains, while the Blue Nile, which suffers from high seasonal fluctuations, descends from the lofty Ethiopian ‘water tower’ highlands. They provide 86 per cent of the waters of the Nile – Blue Nile 59 per cent, Baro-Akobo (Sobat) 14 per cent, Tekesse (Atbara) 13 per cent – while the contribution from the Equatorial Lakes region is only 14 per cent.

Industrial Relations in Western Australia

The main aim of this paper is to provide an overview of West Australian industrial relations that is succinct, comprehensive and useful for students, practitioners and others interested in the subject. It sets the scene with a short survey of the history of Western Australian industrial relations. The principal parties in the system are identified and their major features discussed. The main processes used in Western Australian industrial relations are analysed, and the major outcomes, in the forms of wages and conditions, are outlined. The paper concludes that the dynamic and developing nature of the Western Australian system of industrial relations is evidenced by the emergence within the past twenty-five years of the leading actors in the system, the Trades and Labor Council, the Confederation of Western Australian Industry, the Office of Industrial Relations, and the Industrial Relations Commission. The present operations of the system are complex, and there are pressures for change in the system. Although the long-term effects of the 1986-87 Robe River dispute and related developments are yet to be seen, further reforms in Western Australian industrial laws seem inevitable.

Britain, France and the Arab Middle East 1914–1920, Britain and France in the Middle East and North Africa, 1914–1967 and The Jordan River Dispute

Britain, France and the Arab Middle East 1914–1920, Britain and France in the Middle East and North Africa, 1914–1967 and The Jordan River Dispute

The Chilean-Bolivian Lauca River Dispute and the O.A.S.

The Lauca River dispute between Chile and Bolivia may seem insignificant when compared to many of the major controversies of the postwar period. The Lauca is a 140-mile long narrow river that has its origin in the Andes of northern Chile and then meanders across the border into the Bolivian altiplano, where, after serving as a water supply to small Bolivian towns, it disappears in salty Lake Coipasa. The potential of the river is minor when compared to that of the Nile, Jordan, Indus, Mekong, Colorado, and many other rivers. Yet, Chile's action in April 1962, of diverting some of the waters to irrigate the small Sobraya and Azapa valleys of her northern desert, which provide food for the port of Arica, has proved to be of serious import.The dispute has not yet been resolved and has gravely strained relations between Chile and Bolivia. The effectiveness of the Organization of American States has been brought into question, for while the Organization has settled many other disputes since 1948, it has been unsuccessful in this one, and Bolivia has shown its dissatisfaction by withdrawing from the Council several times.

The Justiciability of International River Disputes: A Study in the Case Method

This paper attempts to more accurately define the doctrine of equitable apportionment governing non-navigable use of international rivers so that practitioners of international law may more easily predict the results of future cases.

International Law and Interstate River Disputes

This examination attempts to make sense of the few guidelines provided to states concerning the division of interstate rives for internal use. Applying principles of international law, the discussion revolves around a State’s absolute right to all waters within it territorial jurisdiction, the prohibition of a use which substantially affects other states, and apportionment of resources based on relevant considerations.

The Columbia River Dispute

The Columbia River Dispute

From the Indus to the Jordan: Characteristics of Middle East International River Disputes

From the Indus to the Jordan: Characteristics of Middle East International River Disputes

Physical Aspects of the Laramie River Dispute

arid West have become more and more acute. By 1910, many interstate streams had become over-appropriated by rapidly growing irrigation districts throughout the West. Continued expansion of the irrigated areas led to serious legal conflicts among various states in whose borders unplanned appropriation of waters had been going on without regard to the needs or future of other states through which the streams flowed. The years from 1910 to 1930 were characterized by endless stream of legal battles over the problems, but it was not until the widespread drouth conditions which developed in the 1930's that the problems became so aggravated as to draw attention of the general public. One of the problems has been of vital interest to the great irrigated farming districts of northern Colorado and Wyoming and has resulted in a serious threat to security of the meadow land ranchers in the Laramie Valley in Colorado. The problem involves the waters of the Laramie River which rises in the Medicine Bow ranges of North Central Colorado and flows

Settlement of the Red River Dispute: GEOLOGICAL NOTES

Settlement of the Red River Dispute: GEOLOGICAL NOTES