The Law of the River. The Institutional Challenge for Transboundary River Basin Management and Multi-Level Approaches to Water Quantity Management

This research project relates to cooperation between EU Member States with regard to International River Basin Districts (IRBDs), with a special focus on the quantitative aspects of water management. As the waters that run through these districts are not contained within the boundaries of national territories, but cross state borders, they require a solid overarching legal framework. Indeed, actions taken by one Member State in the district, impact the status of the water in another Member State in that same district, potentially jeopardising the compliance of the latter with the relevant European Directives. However, the currently applicable European framework lacks mechanisms to safeguard cooperation between these states. The governance of waters subject to the EU legal framework for water law is multi-levelled to a large degree. The main levels of governance are (a) the international level, governed by the UN Watercourses Convention and the UNECE Water Convention; (b) the sub-regional level, namely the structures formed on the basis of these Conventions for specific rivers, such as the Rhine, (c) the level of the European Union, namely through the Water Framework Directive and its sister and daughter Directives; (d) the national level of the riparian Member States, namely the level wherein the instruments issued at the level of the European Union is being implemented in the national orders, and (e) the sub-national level of the riparian Member States, namely the local authorities for sub-basins and sub-sub-basins entering into consultations with their cross-border counterparts. Each of these five levels needs to be taken into account. Moreover, there is an interaction between each of these levels. The interaction most relevant for this research is the interaction, which is taking place between level (a) and level (c), with level (b), (d) and (e) representing testing cases through the concept of International River Basin Districts.

Jaar van publicatie:2017

Toegankelijkheid:Open