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Dellapenna, Joseph W.; Loures, Flavia Rocha --- "Transboundary Aquifers: Towards Substantive and Process Reform in Treaty-making" [2011] ELECD 652; in Benidickson, Jamie; Boer, Ben; Benjamin, Herman Antonio; Morrow, Karen (eds), "Environmental Law and Sustainability after Rio" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Environmental Law and Sustainability after Rio

Editor(s): Benidickson, Jamie; Boer, Ben; Benjamin, Herman Antonio; Morrow, Karen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857932242

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: Transboundary Aquifers: Towards Substantive and Process Reform in Treaty-making

Author(s): Dellapenna, Joseph W.; Loures, Flavia Rocha

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

13. Transboundary aquifers: towards
substantive and process reform in
treaty-making
Joseph W. Dellapenna and Flavia Rocha
Loures

1. INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the final shape, scope and text of the Draft Articles on
the Law of Transboundary Aquifers and Aquifer Systems of the International
Law Commission (`2008 ILC Draft Articles').1 The goals are to assess
whether and to what extent the 2008 ILC Draft Articles conform to Agenda
21 and the Rio Declaration, and to propose appropriate adjustments to
address the instances where they do not.
The International Law Commission (ILC) ­ the United Nations body
charged with the codification and development of customary international
law ­ initiated the study on the law of transboundary aquifers in 2000, upon a
request by the UN General Assembly.2 In 2006, the ILC adopted a first set of
draft articles and invited states to present comments by January 2008. Based
on states' comments, the ILC prepared a revised draft and submitted it to the
UN General Assembly in 2008, as the basis for negotiating and possibly
adopting a global instrument on international groundwater law. In December
2008 the UN General Assembly considered the draft articles and: (a) took
note of their final text; (b) commended them to the attention of governments
without prejudice to the question of their future adoption or other appropriate
action; (c) encouraged the states concerned to make appropriate bilateral or
regional management arrangements, taking into account the draft articles;
and (d) decided provisionally to examine the question of ...