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Peeters, Marjan --- "The Joint Governance of Transboundary River Basins: Some Observations on the Role of Law" [2008] ELECD 348; in Faure, Michael; Ying, Song (eds), "China and International Environmental Liability" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: China and International Environmental Liability

Editor(s): Faure, Michael; Ying, Song

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847207524

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: The Joint Governance of Transboundary River Basins: Some Observations on the Role of Law

Author(s): Peeters, Marjan

Number of pages: 33

Extract:

7. The joint governance of
transboundary river basins: some
observations on the role of law
Marjan Peeters1

1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter focuses on the transnational management of transboundary
rivers. One of the classic examples of a transboundary environmental
problem is that the upstream use of a river might harm the downstream
water quality in another state. The Netherlands, being the delta for four
main rivers, will naturally suffer from this type of event.2 The Sandoz affair
of 1986, where a fire at a chemical plant in Switzerland and the subsequent
leakage of the polluted firewater into the river caused a `dead' ecology of
the River Rhine, is an important example.3
Being a victim-state, the Netherlands traditionally has a particular inter-
est in developing an international approach with respect to the manage-
ment of transboundary river systems. The Dutch government therefore
engaged in discussions and political negotiations with upstream polluting
states. As a result of international political meetings, several transbound-
ary river commissions have been established. Those commissions, contain-
ing representative delegations from the river basin states, overarch the
national regional and local governments of the concerned states. The com-
missions have originally been established on a voluntary base, and are
subsequently formalized by means of a treaty. The development of the river


1 The author would like to thank Mr Mario Cerutti (Secretary of the

International Meuse Commission), Mr Ben van de Wetering (Secretary of the
International Rhine Commission) and Dr Anne Schulte-Wülwer-Leidig (Substitute
...