Following the Proper Channels: Tributaries in the Mekong Legal Regime

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abstract

List of Illustrations

List of Abbreviations

List of Legislative Materials

List of Cases

Introduction

1 The Mekong River Basin

1.1 Physical Setting

1.2 Geology and Geomorphology

1.3 Climate

1.4 Water Resources

1.5 Mekong Tributaries

1.5.1 Tributaries in the Context of Holistic Water Resources Management

1.6 Chapter 1 Conclusion

2 Legal and Institutional Framework

2.1 The Mekong Legal Regime: 1957-1995

2.1.1 1957-1975: The Mekong Committee, the 1957 Mekong Statute and the Water Charter

2.1.2 1975-1978: The Joint Declaration

2.1.3 1978-1995: The Interim Mekong Committee

2.2 1995-Present: The 1995 Mekong Agreement

2.2.1 The Mekong River Commission (MRC)

2.2.2 National Interests and Water Law

2.2.3 The Role of International Water Law

2.2.4 Waterscapes

2.2.5 Salient Provisions of the 1995 Mekong Agreement

2.2.6 The Sustainable Development Paradigm

2.2.7 Balancing Water Quality and Water Quantity in the Mekong Regime

2.3 Chapter 2 Conclusion

3 A Retrospective Look at Tributary Watercourse Law in the Mekong and Other Selected Legal Regimes

3.1 Evolution of Article 5(A) in the Mekong Legal Regime

3.2 Tributary Watercourse Law in Other Selected Legal Regimes

3.2.1 The 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty (us and Canada)

3.2.2 The 1961 Columbia River Treaty (US and Canada) and the Okanagan River Basin

3.2.3 A Community of Interest in Mekong Tributaries? The Influence of the River Oder and the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros (Hungary/Slovakia) Cases

3.2.4 Arizona v. California

3.2.5 The Nigeria-Niger Tributary Agreement

3.3 Chapter 3 Conclusion

4 Mekong Tributaries: Selected Case Studies

4.1 Hydropower Development on the Sesan River

4.1.1 The Sesan River

4.1.2 Development of the Yali Falls Dam

4.2 The Thai Water Grid

4.3 The Legal and Scientific Imperatives for Demarginalizing Tributaries in the Mekong Legal Regime: Dams, Water Diversions, Biogeography, and the Evolving Contours of Climate Change

4.4 Chapter 4 Conclusion

5 The Mekong: The Archetypal Dissevered River Basin

5.1 Introduction: The Dissevered River Basin Concept

5.2 Chapter 5 Conclusion

6 A Flawed Vision? Deficiencies in the Mekong Legal Regime

6.1 Learning to Get Along: China and the LMRB States

6.2 The View Downstream: EIAS

6.3 The Transparency Issue: Stakeholder Participation and Access to Information

6.4 Crossing the Rubicon: Dispute Resolution

6.5 The Mekong Legal Regime Viewed through the Lens of the UN Watercourses Convention

6.6 Chapter 6 Conclusion

7 Conclusion: Demarginalizing Tributaries and Shifting the Mekong Legal and Policy Paradigm- A Proposal for the Way Ahead

Bibliography

Index