Call for Contributions: Emerging Scholars Blog Post

Challenges for Transboundary Water Cooperation Under International Law

The year 2022 marks the 25^th anniversary of the Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses and the 30^th anniversary of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. International water law, as reflected in these conventions, offers a framework for the joint management of transboundary freshwaters. However, international water law faces many challenges going into the future. As identified in the International Water Law Academy (IWLA) launch event for this series, the High-Level Panel event, these include (but are certainly not limited to) applying global frameworks in regional context, disconnects between national and international governance, the role of customary law, linkages with other areas of international law, issues of dispute settlement, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, disruptive technology and climate change.

To chart a path forward for international water law, mark the anniversary of the global water conventions and take a critical look at their future, the IWLA invites emerging scholars in the field of international water law to contribute to a blog post in response to the following:

What are the challenges and opportunities for transboundary water cooperation at the regional/basin level? How can international water law, including the global water conventions, help? Are there gaps in the existing legal framework?

Participants are asked to respond to this question in approximately 300 words and are encouraged to be critical and utilize their own research. Instead of full citations, please hyperlink to specific works in the text to your source, but do so sparingly. We are defining “emerging scholar” as broadly and inclusively as possible, and include (but are not limiting it to) graduate students, new faculty members, fresh graduates, scholars new to research in international water law and new practitioners.

Please submit your response (including a short title, affiliation, and ~300-word submission) to this question by June 15^th, 2022. Responses will be reviewed by an expert panel, and those selected will be published as a single blog post on Global Water Forum in mid-August 2022. After publication, some select blog authors will be invited to work with a group of IWLA mentors to expand their work into a full article which they would present at an upcoming conference, with the possibility of publication in a special issue of an international journal.

Submissions and questions regarding this call can be directed to Dr. David J Devlaeminck, School of Law, Chongqing University and Founding Affiliate of the IWLA at djdevlaeminck@cqu.edu.cn.