Presentation

Water is life; it sustains ecosystems, our environments and supports our livelihoods. Competition over freshwater resources is growing and its quality is deteriorating. Even though our planet is water rich relative to its neighbours in the solar system, little of its water is available to human consumption. About 97% of global water resources is ocean water, and of the remaining 3% of freshwater only little is accessible to humans. Population growth, climate change, and economic development add to already abound management challenges and competition over the resource.

International law offers a wide range of mechanisms and norms to regulate utilization and management of the resource, to avoid and settle disputes and to transform competition into cooperative development paths.

The Platform for International Water Law brings together international law experts. Under the direction of and in collaboration with Prof. Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, an internationally renowned expert in the field of the international water law, the platform of associated researchers explores the law applicable to transboundary and national freshwater resources from a variety of perspectives.

Research topics range from work focused on specific case studies (Senegal, Mekong, Amazon, and Nile Rivers, and the Guarani Aquifer), the legal statute of water in times of armed conflict, water governance and the general duty of cooperation in transboundary water law. Economic aspects of water resources management are apprehended through the study of investment disputes and arbitration decisions resulting there from.