Law Commons^™

Water Scarcity, Conflict, And Security In A Climate Change World: Challenges And Opportunities For International Law And Policy, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

Although climate change is expected to have major consequences that affect the global environment in its broadest sense, one of the earliest and most direct impacts will be on Earth’s fresh water systems. While some regions will experience increased precipitation, others will suffer serious scarcity. Among others, consequences are likely to include severe flooding, extreme droughts, and meandering border-rivers. This, in turn, will affect human migration patterns, population growths, agricultural activities, economic development, and the environment. This article explores the impact that climate change will have on regional and global freshwater resources and the resulting legal and policy implications that …

Rethinking Transboundary Ground Water Resources Management: A Local Approach Along The Mexico-U.S. Border, Gabriel E. Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

Despite more than forty years of promises to the contrary, neither Mexico nor the United States have shown any inclination to pursue a border-wide pact to coordinate management of the border region’s transboundary ground water resources. As a result, these critical resources – which serve as the sole or primary source of fresh water for most border communities on both sides – are being overexploited and polluted, leaving the local population with little recourse. Imminently unsustainable, the situation portends a grim future for the region. In the absence of national governmental interests and involvement on either side of the frontier, …

Application Of International Water Law To Transboundary Groundwater Resources, And The Slovak-Hungarian Dispute Over Gabcikovo-Nagymaros, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

The growth in global population and economic development has resulted in tremendous pressures on existing sources of fresh water. Human water use over the past three centuries increased by a factor of thirty-five and is growing by four to eight percent annually. Coupled with recurring international disputes over water resources, poor water management, and the realization that water is an indispensable but finite resource, these trends have propelled the use and management of transboundary groundwater resources to the forefront of legal debate.

Until recently, matters relating to groundwater resources were relatively ignored in the context of international law applicable to …

Protecting A Hidden Treasure: The U.N. International Law Commission And The International Law Of Transboundary Ground Water Resources, Gabriel E. Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

Ground water is the most extracted natural resource in the world. It provides more than half of humanity's freshwater for everyday uses such as drinking, cooking, and hygiene, as well as twenty percent of irrigated agriculture. Given the world's considerable reliance on this precious resource, it is reasonable to assume that international attention to, and especially legal consideration of, ground water would be substantial. Nothing is further from the truth. Despite the growing dependence, legal and regulatory attention to ground water resources have long been secondary to surface water, especially among legislatures and policymakers and above all in the international …

Precious, Worthless, Or Immeasurable: The Value And Ethic Of Water, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

This Article introduces and briefly explores some of the topics related to the value and ethics of water that were considered at the symposium, Precious, Worthless, or Immeasurable: The Value and Ethic of Water, which took place November 2-4, 2006, at the Texas Tech University School of Law. The purpose of the Symposium was to consider how this precious liquid is valued, assessed, and perceived with regard to law and regulations, economics and commerce, people and communities, culture and religion, and others aspects of society that are impacted by water. While far from a comprehensive analysis of the subject matter, …

A Hydrogeological Perspective Of The Status Of Ground Water Resources Under The Un Watercourse Convention, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

When the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses in 1997, it took a decisive step in recognizing the important role that transboundary ground water resources play in human progress and development. In so doing, it also acknowledged the need to establish principles of law governing this "invisible" but valuable natural resource. Transboundary ground water historically has been neglected in treaties, ignored in projects with international implications, and cursorily misunderstood in much of legal discourse. While the Convention provides substantial clarification on the status of ground water under international law, it also leaves considerable …

Organophosphates, Friend And Foe: The Promise Of Medical Monitoring For Farm Workers And Their Families, Adriane J. Busby, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

Millions of farm workers nation-wide who load, mix and/or apply pesticides are exposed to incredible amounts of pesticides on a daily basis. Various inefficiencies and inconsistencies in the regulatory system - including insufficient illness reporting data systems, lack of regulatory compliance and enforcement, and inadequate data and information on the chronic effects of exposure and overexposure to various pesticides - increase the likelihood that these workers will continue to be exposed to dangerous amounts of pesticides. This Article assesses the existing mechanisms designed to protect farm workers from occupational exposure to pesticides and identifies and analyzes some of the shortcomings …

Common Grounds, Common Waters: Towards A Water Ethic - Roundtable Discussion, Gabriel Eckstein, Irene Klaver

Gabriel Eckstein

The purpose of this roundtable discussion is to continue the dialogue but in a more informal setting, and to allow people to develop some of the ideas and concepts that they started earlier but could not finish because of the time limits.

It is also to get the audience and the panelists to ask questions of each other and to participate in more of a dialogue. To start this discussion I want to raise, at least to the panelists, this issue of wants versus needs, and I am actually going to add one more-versus rights-because I thought that was very …

Commentary On The U.N. International Law Commission's Draft Articles On The Law Of Transboundary Aquifers, Gabriel E. Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

Ground water is the most extracted natural resource in the world. It provides more than half of humanity's freshwater for everyday uses such as drinking, cooking, and hygiene, as well as twenty percent of irrigated agriculture. Despite our increasing reliance, ground water resources have long been the neglected stepchild of international water law; regulation and management of and information about ground water resources are sorely lacking, especially in the international context. Presently, there is no international agreement squarely addressing ground water resources that traverse an international boundary. Moreover, there is only one treaty in the entire world pertaining to the …

A Hydrogeological Approach To Transboundary Ground Water Resources And International Law, Gabriel Eckstein, Yoram Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

Ground water resources have long been the neglected stepchild of water law. While agreements focusing on transboundary rivers and lakes have been relatively common, there is a paucity of treaties and international norms squarely addressing shared ground water resources. As a result, the rules governing the use, management, and conservation of transboundary ground waters is unclear at best.

This dearth is, in large part, the result of a deficit of scientific understanding among legislators, policymakers, and the judiciary. This is evidenced in many international and domestic laws and policies that have little or no scientific underpinning. Accordingly, there is a …

Examples Of The Political Character Of International Water Law, Gabriel E. Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

It is widely known that over a billion people lack access to potable water, and well over twice that number are without adequate sanitation'-the latter situation often being related to the former. It has been calculated that every eight seconds a child dies of water-related causes-a stunning statistic and an absolutely unacceptable state of affairs.

While much has been made of the prospect of global water shortages, what is perhaps not so well known is that most of the world's fresh water is shared by two or more states. There are more than 260 international drainage basins, which account for …

Bulk Water Transfers: Panacea Or Temporary Patch?, Gabriel Eckstein, Renee Martin-Nagle

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Identifying And Characterizing Transboundary Aquifers Along The Mexico-Us Border: An Initial Assessment, Gabriel Eckstein, Rosario Sanchez

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Implications For Nations Of The Commodification Of Water,, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Texas Border Water Disputes, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

The Global Legal Framework For Transboundary Water Governance, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Presentation On "Drugs On Tap: Managing Pharmaceuticals In Our Nation’S Waters", Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Developments In International Law Applicable To Transboundary Groundwater Resources: The Draft Articles On The Law Of Transboundary Aquifers, Gabriel Eckstein, Francesco Sindico

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Water As An Economic Good: Implications For Nations’ Freshwater Resources, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Lost In Translation: The Interaction Of Science, Policy, And Law, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Workshop And Lectures On “International Water Law, Negotiation And Conflict Resolution”, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Participation In Roundtable Panel “Legal Aspects Of Water: Transboundary Waters And Cooperation”, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Participation In Roundtable Panel “Legal Aspects Of Water: Right To Water And Sanitation", Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Presentation On “Water As An Economic Good: Implications For Freshwater Resources” On The Panel “Water – A Complex Of Challenges For International Law And Policy”, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Women's Reproductive Rights Advanced At Conference, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Gender-Based Criteria For Asylum, Gabriel Eckstein, Gregg Epstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And Environmentalism: Forging Common Ground, Gabriel Eckstein, Miriam Gitlin

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

Protected Speech Or Unlawful Incitement: An Israeli Perspective, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.

International Law In A Time Of Scarcity, Ertharin Cousin, Rebecca H. White, C. Donald Johnson, Lincoln Davies, José Cuesta, Barbara Deutsch Lynch, Harlan G. Cohen, Gabriel Eckstein, Lillian Aponte Miranda, Kristen E. Boon, Peter A. Appel, Anastasia Telesetsky, Aparna Polavarapu, Felix Mormann, Diane Marie Amann, Katie Croghan

Gabriel Eckstein

On February 5th, 2013 the Dean Rusk Center and the Georgia Journal for International and Comparative Law hosted a daylong conference on “International Law in a Time of Scarcity.” The scarcity of resources, whether food, water, fuel sources, or clean air, may be a defining reality for global policy in the years to come. By bringing together leading policy makers and legal scholars, conference organizers created a forum to serve as a foundation for future scholarship on the role of international law in scarcity issues. The keynote speaker was Ertharin Cousin, United Nations World Food Programme executive director and 1982 …

Commission Special Rapporteur Grossman Investigates Women's Rights, Gabriel Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

No abstract provided.