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Transboundary Aquifers and International LawThe Experience of the Guarani Aquifer System

University of Surrey

31 August 2010

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Contents

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Introduction 3

Programme 4

Abstracts 6

Speaker’s bio notes 14

Organisers 22

Outcomes 23

Supported by 24

List of participants 25


Introduction

This seminar brings together an interdisciplinary group of international water experts to discuss the experience gained by in the sustainable management of the Guarani Aquifer System in the light of the current developments on international law of transboundary aquifers. Speakers include experts who have been collaborating with the United Nations International Law Commission in the work that has led to the adoption of the Draft Articles on the law of transboundary aquifers and experts whose work focuses on the Guarani Aquifer System.

The seminar is part of the Environmental Regulatory Research Group project “The Environmental Protection of the Guarani Aquifer: A Legal Perspective” and it contributes to the UNESCO-IHP ISARM (Internationally Shared Aquifers Resource Management) Programme. The seminar constitutes the official launch of the Surrey Centre for the Regulation of Transboundary Aquifers (SCERTA).

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Programme

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8.30 - 9.15 Registration

9.15 - 9.45 Rosalind Malcolm, University of Surrey and Francesco Sindico, University of Surrey “Introductory Remarks and presentation of the Surrey Centre for the Regulation of Transboundary Aquifers”

9.45 - 11.00 Session 1 – Groundwater in a Thirsty World Chair: Steve Pedley, University of Surrey

Mark Zeitoun, University of East Anglia “Groundwater and global water security”

Alice Aureli, UNESCO IHP “Transboundary Aquifers: An Introduction to the new phase of UNESCO´s ISARM programme”

Luiz Amore, Former Secretary-General of the Project for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development of the Guarani Aquifer System “The Guarani Aquifer management strategy developed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay”

11.00 - 11.30 Coffee break

11.30 - 1.15pm Session 2 – Transboundary Aquifers and International Law Chair: Attila Tanzi, University of Bologna and UNECE Water Convention

Owen McIntyre, University College Cork “International Law Relating to Surface Transboundary Fresh Water and the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers: A Missed Opportunity for Cross-Fertilisation?”

Kerstin Mechlem, University of Ulster “International Law of Transboundary Aquifers”

Raya Marina Stephan, UNESCO IHP “The Draft Articles on the law of Transboundary Aquifers: the process at the UN ILC”

11.30 - 1.15pm Gabriel Eckstein, Texas Wesleyan University “Buried Treasure or Buried Hopes?: The Status of Mexico-U.S. Transboundary Aquifers and International Law”

1.15 - 2.15 Lunch

2.15 - 4.00 Session 3 – The Law and Policy of the Guarani Aquifer System Chair: Lilian del Castillo Laborde, University of Buenos Aires

Maria Querol, IUCN Commission on Environmental Law “The Guarani Aquifer and the Treaty of the River Plate Basin”

Alejandro Pastori, Universidad de la Républica de Montevideo “Past and present efforts to regulate the Guaraní Aquifer through a common legal

and institutional framework: the Mercosur option”

Francesco Sindico, University of Surrey “The management of the Guarani Aquifer System and the UN ILC Draft Articles on

the law of Transboundary Aquifers”

Marco Neves da Silva, University of Surrey “Domestic regulatory frameworks in the countries sharing the Guarani Aquifer

System: A critical assessment”

4.00 - 4.30 Coffee break

4.30 - 5.30 Final Session – Concluding Remarks and Final Discussion Chair: Francesco Sindco, University of Surrey

Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Queen Mary, University of London Attila Tanzi, University of Bologna and UNECE Water Convention Lilian del Castillo Laborde, University of Buenos Aires Luiz Amore, Former Secretary-General of the Project for Environmental Protection

and Sustainable Development of the Guarani Aquifer System

7.00pm Seminar Dinner (Lakeside Restaurant)


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Abstracts

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Mark ZeitounGroundwater and global water security

The presentation explores how efforts to ‘secure’ water resources by many states and by the global policy community can be improved. Existing efforts are generally inadequate for two reasons. The first is an incomplete understanding of the resource itself. Water resources managers and policy-makers remain fixated on surface water, all too often ignoring the reserves of groundwater and soil water, as well as the water used to produce tradeable goods (‘virtual water’). Second, there is a collective failure to recognise that water security is not just about water. The hydrological cycle substantially affects and is impacted by other major global ‘security areas’, which include climate change, food security, energy security – and the international cooperation required to deliver regional, state, and human security. The growing interest in groundwater by the international water, security and legal communities serves to partially redress the inadequacies. The development and implementation of more effective international regulation guiding food trade, and transboundary groundwater protection and allocation are highlighted as the appropriate guiding policy goals.

Alice AureliTransboundary Aquifers: An Introduction to the new phase of UNESCO´s ISARM programme

Luiz AmoreThe Guarani Aquifer management strategy developed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay

The Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development of the Guarani Aquifer Project was developed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay with support of Global Environment Facility, World Bank and Organization of American States. As a result, countries and international cooperation agencies established a Strategic Action Plan and a cooperation strategy aimed to support groundwater management at different levels.

Basic knowledge on groundwater was a key issue in the development of the Guarani Aquifer management strategy. Groundwater flow characterization was based on the investigation of different hydrogeological data, mainly acquired indirectly from exploitation wells. The water volume stored confirmed the Guarani Aquifer is a huge reservoir. But according to available information and developed hydrogeological models abstraction impact is spatial limited. Last isotope studies confirmed groundwater fluxes are very slow and natural replenishment in some areas is less than pumping capacity. In confined areas groundwater use could be comparable to mining and transboundary impacts on groundwater must be technically defined.

Coherently with a strong transparent and cooperative process, the Guarani Aquifer countries defined two technical management instruments: an Information System (SISAG) and a well Monitoring Network and Modeling structure. Data information from available wells and processing capacity have been key issues to support the decision making process in responsible institutions for groundwater management. Two other management instruments were developed to strength institutions on groundwater capacity building and support local management of aquifer resources. In the same Strategic Action Program development process, the four countries defined all national and regional priorities to the aquifer management process.

The proposed cooperation framework can be developed according to future exploitation and regulation necessities. A Steering Committee with technical and diplomatic joint participation and regional technical committees to support management instruments functioning process were established. To support the integration process of different national institutions working on groundwater issues management units were also established in each country. To articulate national information acquisition process and regional required analysis an Articulation Unit was created in Montevideo. All regional cooperation and management strategies fall under the umbrella of the Plata River Watershed Basin Treaty approved by countries in 1969.

After the project execution phase, countries are implementing the management instruments and establishing all cooperation mechanisms. The Guarani Aquifer Project was a milestone in the management development process aimed to provide all the society with better groundwater exploitation and regulatory strategies. The Guarani Transboundary Aquifer management strategy is being implemented and combines regional, national, province and local efforts. The future depends on institutional capacity building and society participation to address groundwater management challenge.


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Abstracts

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Kerstin MechlemInternational Law of Transboundary Aquifers

Groundwater represents about 97 per cent of the fresh water resources available, excluding the resources locked in polar ice. Yet, international law has paid only marginal attention to the management and protection of transboundary aquifers and only recently these resources have become a subject of international law in their own right.

The paper will analyse the extent of groundwater protection at different levels from the global to the regional to the bilateral and from treaty law to non-binding legal instruments. At the global level it will look at the unsatisfactory way in which the United Nations Convention on the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses (1997), which, despite its lack of entry into force, is still the most comprehensive and authoritative framework of international water law, addresses groundwater. It will then address aquifer management and protection at the regional level, where Europe leads the way, and at the bi- and multilateral level. Finally, it will discuss the important contribution of non-binding legal instruments among which the ILC Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers hold a special place. It will draw conclusions as to emerging rules of international groundwater law and discuss the role the ILC Draft Articles could play as a frame of reference for the development of regional or aquifer-specific bi- or multilateral treaties or as a basis for an international transboundary aquifers convention.

Raya Marina StephanThe Draft Articles on the law of Transboundary Aquifers: the process at the UN ILC

In 2002, The UN International Law Commission (ILC) added to its program of work the topic of Shared Natural Resources, including three sub-topics: transboundary groundwater, oil and gas. The first report was submitted in 2003, indicating the approach adopted by the Special Rapporeur which was to start with transboundary groundwater, and to deal with oil and gas later on. Five years later, in July 2008 the UN ILC completed its work on the first sub-topic by adopting at second reading nineteen draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers with their commentaries. The draft articles were then deferred to the UN General Assembly (GA) which adopted in December 2008 Resolution A/RES/63/124 including the draft articles in annex. In the Resolution, the UN GA “encourages the States concerned to make appropriate bilateral or regional arrangements for the proper management of their transboundary aquifers, taking into account the provisions of these draft articles”. This paper will present the process at the UN ILC which has led to the adoption of the draft articles. The paper will also go through the main principles codified in the draft articles. The UN ILC had benefited from a unique cooperation on the science of hydrogeology from UNESCO’s International Hydrological Program (IHP), hence it considered and covered issues of main importance for hydrogeologists. It gave the draft articles the multi-disciplinary approach water management requires.

Owen McintyreInternational Law Relating to Surface Transboundary Fresh Water and the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers: A Missed Opportunity for Cross-Fertilisation?

The key principles of international water resources law are now firmly established and are increasingly well understood in terms of their practical application. Although already part of customary international law, the cardinal principle of equitable and reasonable utilisation and the duty to prevent significant transboundary harm, along with the various associated procedural requirements falling under the rubric of the duty to cooperate relating, inter alia, to notification, good faith negotiation and consultation, dispute settlement, and the ongoing exchange of information, received significant endorsement through their inclusion in the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention. This remains the case despite the fact that the Convention has not entered into force, and may never do so, as it largely represents a codification by the International Law Commission (ILC) of the relevant customary rules. In addition, the explicit or implicit inclusion of a number of emerging principles of international environmental law, including the precautionary principle, the ecosystems approach, and the requirement for transboundary EIA, has greatly enhanced the normative status of such principles in customary international law.

The ILC has taken a further significant step in terms of the codification and progressive development of international water resources law, and the rules of international law applying to the utilisation and environmental protection of transboundary groundwater resources in particular, by its adoption of the 2008 Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers. The adoption of a specific set of Draft Articles recognizes belatedly the vital role of groundwater resources, their unique vulnerability and their quite distinct geophysical characteristics.

However, the Draft Articles are likely to give rise to a good deal of confusion as regards the scope of application of the UN Watercourses Convention and of the ILC Draft Articles respectively, and as regards the potential for overlap. This matters because the Draft Articles take an approach to the utilization and environmental protection of transboundary water resources that is markedly different from the UN Watercourses Convention in a number of key respects. For example, due to the manner in which ‘transboundary aquifers’ are defined in the Draft Articles, they place an emphasis on the principle of State sovereignty, which would appear to be at odds with current understanding of the principle of reasonable and equitable utilization. Possibly of even greater significance, some aspects of the Draft Articles could be regarded as being regressive and as rowing back on progress achieved under the UN Convention, for example in respect of the ‘community of interests’ approach to shared water resources and the, at least nominal, emphasis on ecosystems protection. Of course, other aspects of the Draft Articles might be regarded as very leading-edge and progressive, such as the clear emphasis on the distribution of ‘benefits’.


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Abstracts

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This paper seeks to explore the opportunities, missed and remaining, for the ‘cross-fertilisation’ of ideas between the U.N. Convention and the ILC Draft Articles in respect of the normative content and significance of key principles of international water resources law. Given the dearth of clear State and treaty practice in relation to transboundary aquifers, it would seem appropriate to try to identify which aspects of international law and practice in respect of surface waters might inform inter-State on groundwater resources. Conversely, the more progressive aspects of the Draft Articles can play a role in moving forward our understanding of water resources law generally. At any rate, a clear, coherent and integrated framework for State cooperation on the utilization and protection of all shared water resources must be preferable to one that is fragmented and confused.

Gabriel EcksteinBuried Treasure or Buried Hopes?: The Status of Mexico-U.S. Transboundary Aquifers and International Law

The 2000 mile-long border between Mexico and the United States is hot and dry. Few rivers cross this arid expanse. Despite the lack of visible water, though, the region continues to grow – the combined border population currently is approximately twelve million and is expected to grow to twenty or more million by 2030. The reason is ground water; more specifically, transboundary aquifers.There are as many as twenty aquifers straddling the Mexico/United States border. Many of these serve as the primary source of fresh water for overlying populations. The Hueco Bolson Aquifer, for example, provides Ciudad Juarez’s 1.5 million residents with all of its water, and thirty percent of that used by El Paso’s 730,000 residents. For others, these aquifers are the only source of fresh water for hundreds of miles, such as for the sister cities of Columbus, New Mexico, and Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua.Surprisingly, there is no agreement between Mexico and the United States that addresses the allocation and management of these transboundary aquifers. Although a number of pronouncements can be found in local arrangements and the Minutes of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), none offer any substantive guidance as to how the two countries should manage these importance fresh water resources.

As a result, the region’s ground water resources, environment, and communities are succumbing to serious consequences that could threaten the viability of the region. Overexploitation is growing as populations on both sides of the border pump with little regard for transboundary impacts or sustainability. Additionally, growing demands are taxing these finite underground reservoirs as border communities expand and untreated waste, agricultural and industrial by-products, and other pollution sources threaten water quality and quantity.

This study will review the use of ground water resources along the Mexico-United States border and the impact that growth in populations and economic development has had on those resources. It will also

look at the law – from the local to the international level – that is applicable to this unique border region, including, inter alia, customary international law, Minute 242 of the IBWC, the Bellagio Draft Agreement, the U.S. Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act, and the Memorandum of Understanding between the sister cities of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, USA. The study will also consider the relevance to the region of the Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers, the work-product of the UN International Law Commission in its effort to codify the international law of transboundary aquifers. Finally, the study will identify the shortcomings of the current situation and offer recommendations for an arrangement between the two nations.

María QuerolThe Guarani Aquifer and the Treaty of the River Plate Basin

The recently signed Guarani Aquifer Agreement regulates the sustainable use and protection of one of the world’s largest groundwater reservoirs. Shared by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the Guarani Aquifer is recharged by the waters of the Plata River Basin.

Following an integrated hydrological approach, the States concerned have explicitly concluded this agreement within the framework of the Plata Basin Treaty.

The purpose of this presentation is to analyze the legal regime established by both treaties, the way in which their norms are articulated and the challenges their application poses with reference to the Guarani Aquifer.


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Abstracts

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Alejandro PastoriPast and Present efforts to regulate the Guaraní Aquifer through a common legal and institutional framework: the Mercosur option

Mercosur is a commercial regional integration organization that involves the four countries that also share the Guaraní Aquifer System (GAS). To this extent, a legal and institutional regulation within the Mercosur framework is one of the natural options at hand of the Parties to provide for a common regional management of the GAS.

To evaluate whether or not this issue would be appropriate for the future of the GAS, it is necessary to have first a brief approach to the general legal and institutional system of Mercosur in which the GAS would be insert. This constitutes the first part of the presentation. The second part of the presentation summarizes the negotiations made by the governments of the Parties to include the legal and institutional negotiation within the Mercosur and the main reasons for the failure of the negotiations until now.

Finally the third and last part is devoted to the analysis of the benefits or disadvantages that a Mercosur oriented framework would have for a sustainable legal and institutional framework for the GAS, together with some conclusions to this respect.

Francesco SindicoThe management of the Guarani Aquifer System and the UN ILC Draft Articles on the law of Transboundary Aquifers

UN General Assembly Resolution 63/124 that annexes the UN International Law Commission (ILC) Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers encourages States sharing a transboundary aquifer to “make appropriate bilateral or regional arrangements for the proper management of their transboundary aquifers taking into account the provisions of these draft articles.”

Against this background this presentations takes a twofold approach. The first looks at the current talks between the four countries that share the Guarani Aquifer System (GAS) as to its future regulation. The Project for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development of the Guarani Aquifer System suggested in its conclusions three possible avenues for the future long term management of the GAS: an arrangement under the Treaty of the River Plate Basin, the possibility to rely on the institutional and legal framework of the MERCOSUR and, arguably, an ad-hoc arrangement due to the special nature of the GAS itself. We will focus on the last option and assess the case for an ad-hoc arrangement for the management of the GAS and the role that the provisions of the UN ILC draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers may play therein.

In this presentation we will also analyse whether, and to what extent, the experience of the GAS was taken into account by the UN ILC in its work on the law of transboundary aquifers. In particular, we will look at the management structure of the Project for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development of the Guarani Aquifer System in order to see whether similar patterns can be found in the draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers. We will also take a close look at the management structure of the two transboundary pilot projects within the project (the Concordia Salto project between Argentina and Uruguay and the Rivera Santana pilot project between Uruguay and Brazil).

In conclusion, firstly, we wish to assess the extent to which the four States sharing the GAS may take into account the provisions provided for in the UN ILC draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers in the future management of the GAS. Secondly, we are also interested in exploring the possible influence that the past regional cooperation between the four countries that share the GAS may have played in the work of the UN ILC. Insights from both aspects of this study will be relevant for the ongoing international debate on the future of the UN ILC draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers.

Marco Neves Da SilvaDomestic regulatory frameworks in the countries sharing the Guarani Aquifer System: A critical assessment


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Speaker’s Bio-Notes

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Alejandro PastoriAdjunct Professor in Public International Law, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

Doctor in Law and Social Sciences- University of the Republic. Montevideo. Uruguay. DEA in Public International Law and International Organizations. University of Paris I. Former Fulbright Scholar in the US; Hague Research Center Scholar; UNITAR Fellow.

Between 1998 and 2005 he has been Senior Legal advisor to the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI). Previously he was Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay. In this context he has been a member of the Uruguayan delegation that negotiated the MERCOSUR institutional treaty and a member of the Uruguayan delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in 1993 and 1994. UNDP and Mercosur/IADB consultant in regional integration topics.

Visiting professor and lecturer in several universities. He has published 2 books (“Uruguay and the New World Order” -1992- in Spanish, and “Essential International Jurisprudence” in Spanish -2009-) and 32 articles in his field of specialization.

Alice AureliUNESCO International Hydrological Programme

Attila TanziFull Professor of International Law, University of Bologna and Chairman of the Legal Board of the UNECE Water Convention

Full Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bologna. He has been an External Consultant to the Legal Service of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Italy from 1987 to 2001, and to the Ministry of the Environment since 1999. He also advises International Organisations on public international law issues, with special regard to environmental law. He has been several times a member of the Italian delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations.He has been counsel and arbitrator in several private and interstate arbitrations (ICC and PCA); between 2002 and 2008 he served in the panel of arbitrators under Article 8(3) of the Permanent Court of Arbitration Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes Relating to Natural Resources and/or the Environment. Since 2003, he is Chairman of the Legal Board of the UN/ECE 1992 Convention on Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International. Since 2008, Chairman of the Compliance Committee of the London Protocol on Water and Health. He has held numerous academic positions and has written extensively on State Responsibility, Jurisdictional Immunities and Environmental Law.

Francesco SindicoLecturer, School of Law, University of Surrey and Deputy Director, Environmental Regulatory Research Group

Francesco Sindico is a Lecturer at the School of Law of the University of Surrey since 2007. He also serves as Deputy Director of the Environmental Regulatory Research Group (ERRG) and Programme Leader of the LLM Environmental Health. He is currently leading the ERRG project “The Environmental Protection of the Guarani Aquifer: A Legal Perspective”, whose goal is to set the foundations of the Surrey Centre for the Regulation of Transboundary Aquifers. The Centre will be launched at the international seminar on “Transboundary Aquifers and International Law: The Experience of the Guarani Aquifer System” in August 2010 and it will contribute to the UNESCO ISARM (Internationally Shared Aquifer Resource Management) Programme. Before focusing on international water law and policy, Francesco has been doing research in other fields of international environmental law, such as climate change and trade and the relationship between climate change and security. He is Associate Editor of the journal “Carbon and Climate Law Review” and is a member of the Editorial Committee of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law E-Journal.

Gabriel EcksteinProfessor of Law, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law

Gabriel Eckstein is a professor of law at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, in Fort Worth, TX, where he specializes in water and environmental law and policy at both the US and international levels. He has served as an expert advisor and consultant on US and international environmental and water issues to various organizations, including the United Nations, US Agency for International Development, World Commission on Dams, Organization of American States, International Association of Hydrogeologists, and various local water entities in the United States. Prior to joining Texas Wesleyan University, Professor Eckstein held the George W. McCleskey Chair in Water Law at Texas Tech University where he also directed the Texas Tech University Center for Water Law & Policy. Before that, he served as Senior Counsel for CropLife America, an agrichemical trade association trade association, working on environmental regulation and legislative matters, and as a litigator in private practice working on environmental, toxic tort, and asbestos cases. Currently, Professor Eckstein also serves as Senior Fellow for the Texas Tech University Center for Water Law & Policy, is director of the Internet-based International Water Law Project, and is on the executive board of the International Water Resources Association.

Professor Eckstein holds J.D. and LL.M. degrees from American University, M.S. in International Affairs from Florida State, and B.A. in Geology from Kent State University. He is admitted to the bars of New York, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.


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Kerstin MechlemLecturer at the Transitional Justice Institute of the University of Ulster

Kerstin is a Lecturer at the Transitional Justice Institute of the University of Ulster. Prior to joining the TJI Kerstin worked for two years as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and for five years as a Legal Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome. During her time at FAO she was a member of an interdisciplinary group that advised the Special Rapporteur on Shared Natural Resources of the International Law Commission. Kerstin has also provided advice to a number of countries in Africa and Latin America on natural resources legislation, particularly in the field of water law and delivered courses on international law for IDLO and UNITAR.

Lilian Del Castillo LabordeProfessor, University of Buenos Aires School of Law

Mrs. Lilian del Castillo-Laborde is a lawyer and PhD from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she chairs ‘Public International Law’, and has undergraduate and postgraduate courses on ‘International Jurisdictions’, ‘Environment and Human Rights’, and other topics. She prepared the keywords ‘Equitable Utilization of Shared Resources’ (2010) and ‘La Plata Basin’ (2009) for the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (Oxford University Press). Mrs. Del Castillo-Laborde has been appointed member of the Argentinean Academy of Environmental Science. Among her books, Water Fora, From Mar del Plata to Istambul and Water management in Argentina (in Spanish) and The Río de la Plata and its Maritime Front Legal Regime (in English). She is a member of the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI) and chairs the ‘Malvinas Committee’. Among her latest articles, she published ‘Environmental awareness for Arctic and Antarctic regions,’ ‘La Plata Basin’ and ‘Case-law on International Watercourses’. She is a member of the International Law Association (Argentine Branch), the American Society of International Law, the International Water Resources Association, the International Association of Water Law (AIDA), among others.

Luiz AmoreFormer Secretary-General of the Project for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development of the Guarani Aquifer System

Luiz Amore is a hydrogeologist acting as a consultant on water resources management. He has a background on geology, a master on environment and is a PhD candidate on hydrogeology at Berlin University. He took part in different programs on environment management like Management of Sustainability (Sustainability Challenge Foundation) and Leadership for Environment and Development (Rockefeller Foundation). He has experience on public management at different levels: local, provincial and national levels. At the Water Resources Secretariat and the Brazilian Water Agency he participated in the implementation of the Groundwater Technical Chamber of the Brazilian Water Resources Council and special acts on groundwater. He was the Secretary General of the Guarani Aquifer Project (Global Environment Facility, World Bank and Organization of American States) in Montevideo (2003-2009) under the direction of the Project Steering Committee (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay).

Malgosia FitzmauriceProfessor of Public International Law, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London

Malgosia Fitzmaurice holds a chair of public international law at the Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London. She specialises in international environmental law, international water, indigenous peoples and the law of treaties. Professor Fitzmaurice published widely on both subjects. In July 2001, she was invited to deliver keynote lectures on ‘International Protection of the Environment’ at the Hague Academy of International Law.In 1996, Professor Fitzmaurice delivered a paper at the 50th anniversary of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. She lectured widely in the United Kingdom and abroad at various universities, such as Utrecht and Brussels and at the World Bank in 2001. She also participated in many international conferences. Until 2001, she was a member of the Board of Editors and one of the Editors of the Netherlands Yearbook of International Law. She is the Editor in Chief of the International Community Law Review and a Co-Rapporteur of the International Law Association Committee on Non-State Actors. She taught extensively in various law schools, including the United States. Professor Fitzmaurice’s previous teaching positions include Readership in international law at the Department of Law, University of Amsterdam. She also worked at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague. Professor Fitzmaurice teaches undergraduate and graduate international law courses, including international environmental law and the law of treaties. She published extensively on all these subjects, most recently a monograph on the Contemporary Issues in the International Environmental Law (2009).


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María QuerolMember of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law

María Querol is an Argentine jurist, who holds a diplôme d’études supérieures in International Relations with specialization in International Law and has just finished her PHD at the Geneva’s Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

She has been both an assistant and an associate professor of International Law at the Law Faculty of Austral University in Buenos Aires for ten years. She has also been a researcher at the Department of International Law and International Relations of the same University. As regards her professional background, she has worked both at the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship and as an independent international law consultant.

María Querol has specialized herself in International Water Law, providing legal counsel to several international organisations. She has published numerous articles in this field, both in her country and abroad. She is a member of the American Society of International Law, of the International Law Association and of IUCN’s Commission on Environmental Law.

Mark ZeitounSenior Lecturer, UEA Water Security Research Centre, School of International Development, University of East Anglia

Mark’s primary research interests lie in the political economy of transboundary environmental governance in ‘development’ contexts. He concentrates on three specific topics: a) international and sub-national transboundary water conflict and cooperation; b) climate vulnerability and adaption to environmental and political change; and c) relationships between environmental conflict, and human, state and regional security. He is particularly interested in the role that power asymmetry plays within each topic, with a geographic focus on the Middle East and Africa.

The interests have been cultivated by his role as co-lead in the London Water Research Group and the UEA Water Security Research Centre, both of which take a critical perspective at international transboundary environmental cooperation and conflict, and ‘hydro-hegemony’. The groups gather international water professionals, activists and scholars from the social and natural sciences to address issues of asymmetric water allocation and regimes. The contributions to water science and water policy are through demonstrating the relevance of political economy, hydro-politics and international law at the river basin, regional and global levels. The research is based on a professional career in water policy, management and negotiations. Mark has worked as a humanitarian-aid water engineer in conflict and post-conflict zones, including in Chad/Darfur, Congo-Brazzaville, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine. He consults regularly on water

negotiations, policy and governance for a variety of organisations. He is author of Power and Water in the Middle East: The Hidden Politics of the Palestinian-Israeli Water Conflict (IB Tauris 2008), and contributes regularly to debates through public lectures and media pieces.

Mark has a B.Eng in civil engineering (1990) and an M.Sc in environmental engineering (1998) from McGill University, and a PhD in human geography from King’s College London (2006). He is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Owen McintyreSenior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, National University of Ireland

Owen McIntyre is a graduate of the National University of Ireland Galway (B.A. 1988; LL.B. 1990) and the University of Manchester (Ph.D. 2005). He began lecturing in UCC in 2000, before which he worked as the first Parliamentary and Law Reform Executive of the Law Society of Ireland from 1998 to 2000 and lectured in the UK between 1991 and 1998, latterly at the University of Manchester. He serves on the editorial boards of a number of Irish and international journals, including the Journal for European Environmental and Planning Law, the International Journal of Law in the Built Environment, Environmental Liability, the Irish Planning and Environmental Law Journal, and the Judicial Studies Institute Journal. He is currently involved in a number of research projects funded by the Irish Higher Education Authority and the Irish Environmental Protection Agency and has recently completed research projects on behalf of the Irish Heritage Council and the Irish Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. He recently co-authored a report for the Law Society of Ireland on Environmental Enforcement: The Case for Reform (2008). In addition, he has acted as a consultant for such organisations as the World Bank, UNDP, UNEP and the EU on matters of environmental law and international water law in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia, South East Asia, India, the Middle East, East Africa and Southern Africa. In 2004, he was appointed as a panel member of the Independent Recourse Mechanism (IRM) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and in 2008 he was designated a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency as an expert on European and International Environmental Law. He has published widely on a range of issues in environmental law and has recently published a book on Environmental Protection of International Watercourses under International Law (Ashgate, 2007).


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Raya Marina StephanConsultant, UNESCO-IHP

Raya Marina Stephan is a lawyer, expert in water law, and more specifically groundwater law. She is a consultant, and she has been collaborating with the International Hydrological Program of UNESCO on the groundwater resources program since ten years. She coordinates the legal component of the ISARM (International Shared Aquifer Resources Management) project. She has been an active member, and she has coordinated the experts group set up by UNESCO IHP to provide scientific assistance to the Special Rapporteur of the UN International Law Commission in the preparation of the draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers. She is now involved in various projects on transboundary aquifers with various partners and organisations.

Rosalind MalcolmProfessor, School of Law, University of Surrey and Director, Environmental Regulatory Research Group

Rosalind Malcolm conducts research into the regulatory aspects of environmental and environmental health law. Current research projects include: the regulation of independent water providers in Kenya and Ethiopia, (funded by the Leverhulme Trust); the regulation of the environmental impacts of products on a life cycle basis; the regulation of new technologies, in particular, nanotechnology.

Books published include Food Safety Enforcement published in 2005 by Chadwick House Publishing and Statutory Nuisance: Law and Practice published in 2002 (new edition due 2010) by Oxford University Press. Both were written with co-author John Pointing. She is currently writing a book: Environmental Product Policy: a legal perspective, to be published by Ashgate Publishing. Rosalind is also a member of barristers’ chambers at Guildford Chambers, Guildford, Surrey and an associate member of the Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey. Rosalind is regularly invited to speak at national and international conferences on environmental law and policy and has sat on an expert research review panel for the Belgian Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs.

Steve PedleySenior Research Fellow, Robens Centre for Public and Environmental Health, University of Surrey

Dr Pedley is a microbiologist with over 25 years experience of research and consultancy work. For the past 13 years he has specialised in water quality, pollution control and public health. He has extensive experience in bacteriological and virological techniques, and public health microbiology related to water quality. Dr Pedley has carried out research and consultancy projects on behalf of NERC, EPSRC, UK Environment Agency, USEPA, WHO, UNEP, DFID, British Council, DANIDA, FAO, Save the Children Federation, World Bank and the International Atomic Energy Agency. He has worked on a number of water quality monitoring and assessment projects, including assessments of national and local capacity in Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Qatar, and infrastructure development in The Gambia, Ghana, Uganda, Costa Rica, Turkmenistan and Mauritius. Dr Pedley joined the Robens Centre for Public and Environmental Health in 1991 and became the Manager of the Centre in 1996.


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Organisers

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Outcomes

The seminar is part of the Environmental Regulatory Research Group project “The Environmental Protection of the Guarani Aquifer: A Legal Perspective” and it contributes to the UNESCO-IHP ISARM (Internationally Shared Aquifers Resource Management) Programme. The seminar constitutes the official launch of the Surrey Centre on the Regulation of Transboundary Aquifers (SCERTA).

Environmental Regulatory Research Group (www.surrey.ac.uk/errg)

The Environmental Regulatory Research Group is based at the School of Law in the University of Surrey. The Group deals with four main areas: Climate Change, Environmental and Public Health, Natural Resources, and Water. In each of these areas ERRG is actively involved in research, teaching and consultancy. ERRG members include researchers based at the University of Surrey and external members coming from a wide spectrum of countries and different academic backgrounds.

UNESCO-IHP ISARM (http://www.isarm.net/)

The worldwide ISARM (Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management) Initiative is an UNESCO and IAH led multi-agency effort aimed at improving the understanding of scientific, socio-economic, legal, institutional and environmental issues related to the management of transboundary aquifers.

Surrey Centre for the Regulation of Transboundary Aquifers (SCERTA)

The University of Surrey will be officially launching the Surrey Centre for the Regulation of Transboundary Aquifers at this seminar. SCERTA aims to become a reference for researchers and policymakers engaged in work on transboundary aquifers. The analysis of the regulatory framework of the Guarani Aquifer System wishes to be the first study of this kind and the Centre´s work will expand to other transboundary aquifers in the American Continent, in Europe and in Africa. SCERTA will work very closely with UNESCO and its activities will contribute to the ISARM Programme.

Three sets of publications are planned from this seminar:

• A selection of papers will be published by the International Community Law Review, a leading international law journal as a special issue on Transboundary Aquifers and International Law;

• A report focusing on the legal and policy aspects of the Guarani Aquifer System will be published jointly by the School of Law of the University of Surrey and by UNESCO-IHP;

• An edited book will be published in Spanish on the legal and policy aspects of the Guarani Aquifer System management

Finally, the results of this seminar will be presented at the UNESCO IHP-ISARM and PCCP Programmes International Conference “Transboundary Aquifers: Challenges and New Directions” on 6-8 December 2010


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Supported By

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List of Participants

UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

This project and seminar is co-funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Knowledge Transfer Challenge programme as part of an award to the University of Surrey to support sustainable water and sanitation knowledge exchange contributing to the Millennium Development Goals.

Institute of Advanced Studies (University of Surrey)

The Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Surrey hosts small-scale, scientific and scholarly meetings of leading academics from all over the world to discuss specialist topics in a free-flowing and productive atmosphere, away from the pressure of everyday work. The workshops are multidisciplinary, bringing together scholars from different disciplines to share alternative perspectives on common problems.

For more information please see http://www.ias.surrey.ac.uk/

School of Law (The University of Surrey)

Law has been a part of the University’s portfolio almost since its foundation, with Law and Language combined programmes dating from the 1960s. Over recent years legal education at Surrey has undergone rapid expansion with undergraduate programmes in Law with International Studies and single honours Law now also being offered, as well as a range of postgraduate programmes and research opportunities. In recognition of this, as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the University, Law at Surrey became a School of Law in 2007.

For more information please see http://www.surrey.ac.uk/law

Name Affiliation

1. Ahmet Conker University of East Anglia, Norwich

2. Alejandro Pastori Universidad de la República, Montevideo

3. Alice Aureli UNESCO

4. Attila Tanzi University of Bologna

5. Ayman Afifi University of Surrey

6. Catherine Brolmann University of Amsterdam

7. Emilie Filou Journalist

8. Florence Lee Chi Hong University of Surrey

9. Francesco Sindico University of Surrey

10. Gabriel Eckstein Texas Wesleyan University

11. Hanna Standtke University of Passau

12. Husnain Ahmad Pakistan Engineering Congress

13. Irina Eliseeva Moscow City Bar

14. John Donaldson Durham University

15. Juan Pablo Galeano University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona

16. Kerstin Mechlem University of Ulster

17. Lena Heinrich University of Surrey

18. Leslie Blake University of Surrey

19. Lidia Serrano Tur Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona

20. Lilian del Castillo Laborde University of Buenos Aires


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List of Participants

Name University

21. Luiz Amore Consultant

22. Malgosia Fitzmaurice Queen Mary, University of London

23. Marco Parriciatu University of Bologna

24. Maria Gavouneli University of Athens

25. María Querol Consultant

26. Mark Zeitoun University of East Anglia, Norwich

27. Mete Ardem University of Sheffield

28. Mohamed H. ElrawadyCentre for Environment & Development for the Arab Region & Europe (CEDARE)

29. Owen McIntyre National University of Ireland, University College Cork

30. Panos Merkouris Queen Mary, University of London

31. Raya Marina Stephan Consultant

32. Ronke Peters Kent University

33. Rosalind Malcolm University of Surrey

34. Ruslan Kozhura Moscow City Bar

35. Saleh M.K. SalehCentre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee

36. Steve Pedley University of Surrey

37. Thokozani Kaime University of Surrey

38. Timothy Daniel Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge UK LLP

39. Walters Nsoh University of Surrey


Faculty of Management and LawUniversity of SurreyGuildford, Surrey GU2 7XH UK

www.surrey.ac.uk

3355-0510Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this brochure at the time of going to press. The University reserves the right, however, to introduce changes to the information given including the addition, withdrawal or restructuring of degree programmes.

3355-0810 Transboundary Aquifers and International Law Booklet A5 ver2.indd 28 23/08/2010 10:44