Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law: Series Number 23: Sharing Transboundary Resources: International Law and Optimal Resource Use

Why do states often fail to cooperate, using transboundary natural resources inefficiently and unsustainably? This book, first published in 2002, examines the contemporary international norms and policy recommendations that could provide incentives for states to cooperate. Its approach is multi-disciplinary, proposing transnational institutions for the management of transboundary resources. Benvenisti takes a fresh approach to the problem, considering mismanagement as the link between domestic and international processes. As well, he explores reasons why some collective efforts to develop the international law on transnational ecosystems have failed, while others succeeded. This inquiry suggests that adjudicators need to be assertive in progressively developing the law, while relying on scientific knowledge more than on past practice. Global water policy issues seem set to remain a cause for concern for the foreseeable future; this study provides a new approach to the problem of freshwater, and will interest international environmentalists and lawyers, and international relations scholars and practitioners.

Introduction; 1. The need for collective action in the management of transboundary resources; 2. States as collective actors; 3. The transnational conflict paradigm: structural failures and responses; 4. Transnational institutions for transboundary ecosystem management: defining the tasks and the constraints; 5. The structure and procedure of institutions for transboundary ecosystem management; 6. The development of positive international law on transboundary ecosystems: a critical analysis; 7. Efficiency, custom, and the evolution of the law; 8. Conclusion.