Unravelling Cooperation: The Role and Limits of Cooperation in the Governance of International Watercourses in Customary International Law

Jack Taylor
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Abstract

Fresh water is one of the most fundamental natural resources on the planet for human beings as well as ecosystems more generally. This thesis explores ongoing efforts in international law to govern international watercourse systems more effectively. These efforts have been given recent impetus by the long-awaited entry into force in August 2014 of the first global, comprehensive treaty governing international watercourses – the 1997 United Nations Watercourses Convention (UNWC). The UNWC largely reflects customary international law and given that the UNWC still only has thirty-five State parties, custom continues to play an important role in the governance of many major international watercourses.This thesis focuses on the central notion of cooperation in the field of customary international watercourses law. It first highlights the prominence of the vague, multi-layered and contested concept of cooperation and attempts to unpack it. In doing so, it identifies four distinct manifestations of cooperation and reveals the special emphasis the literature has placed on the fourth manifestation: specific procedural obligations of cooperation.This thesis ultimately applies the assertions made in the literature about the binding and effective nature of customary rules of cooperation to a current case study: a dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile River. Through this case study, this thesis posits that the specific obligations of cooperation identified (notably notification and consultation) sit uneasily in customary international law. Lingering uncertainty about the content of such obligations, in both the literature and by relevant States themselves, highlights the importance of codifying and institutionalising rules of cooperation, so crucial to watercourse management, in order to improve their overall effectiveness.
拆解合作:习惯国际法中合作在国际水道治理中的作用和限制
淡水是地球上最基本的自然资源之一,对人类以及更广泛的生态系统都是如此。这篇论文探讨了国际法中正在进行的更有效地管理国际水道系统的努力。2014年8月,人们期待已久的第一个管理国际水道的全球性全面条约——1997年《联合国水道公约》生效,推动了这些努力。《公约》在很大程度上反映习惯国际法,鉴于《公约》仍然只有35个缔约国,习俗继续在许多主要国际水道的治理中发挥重要作用。本文的重点是在习惯国际水道法领域的合作的中心概念。它首先突出了模糊、多层次和有争议的合作概念的重要性,并试图对其进行剖析。在这样做时,它确定了合作的四种不同表现形式,并揭示了文献特别强调的第四种表现形式:合作的具体程序性义务。本文最终将文献中关于合作习惯规则的约束性和有效性的断言应用于当前的一个案例研究:埃塞俄比亚和埃及之间关于尼罗河上大埃塞俄比亚复兴大坝建设的争端。通过这一案例研究,本文认为所确定的具体合作义务(特别是通知和协商)在习惯国际法中是不稳定的。文献和有关国家本身对这种义务的内容仍然不确定,这突出了将合作规则编纂和制度化的重要性,因为这些规则对水道管理至关重要,以便提高它们的全面效力。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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