Water Law and Cooperation in the Euphrates-Tigris-Region: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approach (past project)

Book Project in Cooperation with Dr Aysegül Kibaroglu, Okan University (Istanbul)

“Water Law and Cooperation in the Euphrates-Tigris Region: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approach” builds on the increased attention for international water governance questions in the UN International Year of Water Cooperation (2013) to evaluate various management issues related to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, with particular attention to the legal governing framework.

Alongside contributions by legal scholars from the respective riparian countries on the national water law, the book offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on political, hydrological and environmental aspects of water management in the region. Additionally, the overall legal implications of water sharing and water resource management are analysed in a critical overview.

Finally, “Water Law in the Euphrates-Tigris Region: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approach” serves as a comprehensive analysis of modern water law in its inclusion of comparative studies of legal and institutional aspects of water management systems in other international river basins. Legal scholars, political scientists, specialists in conflict resolution, economists and policy-makers will find an essential new work in the publication.

The publication is the result of the project on “Water Conflicts in International Law” by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law which was funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. Next to creating a database for the relevant national and international law applicable to transboundary river basin disputes, the project has, inter alia, helped to establish a network of international as well as regional experts and scholars working on the subject. The culmination of this work was an international and inter-disciplinary conference on “Advancing Cooperation in the Euphrates and Tigris Region: Institutional Development and Multidisciplinary Perspectives” held in the premises of Okan University in Istanbul, Turkey, in May 2012. The conference was attended by a wide-ranging group of participants from all riparian States as well as numerous other countries. Issues discussed at the conference as well as in “Water Law and cooperation in the Euphrates-Tigris Region” reflect very crucial questions for the region.

Editors

Aysegül Kibaroglu (Okan University Istanbul)
Adele J. Kirschner (Max Planck Foundation)
Sigrid Mehring (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ)
Rüdiger Wolfrum (Max Planck Foundation)