Ugirashebuja, Emmanuel

2018-03-29T12:20:46Z

2018-03-29T12:20:46Z

2008

This thesis seems to be compendious in terms of the range of international law issues it summoned up. The most notable of those issues are: international watercourse law, state succession, human rights law and the law of treaties. Water is the most essential and fought over resource in the World. Struggles over the allocation of water are framed by legal regimes that encompass the body of established rules. But as values change, novel norms and court rulings can affect already established legal regimes. The history of the Nile River, a shared freshwater resource provides an ideal case study to explore the struggle for control over water and how changes in legal regimes affect water allocation. The Nile River has been a source of life and conflict between the riparian countries in the Nile Basin for centuries.

The fundamental purpose of this study is to review the Nile legal regime in the light of contemporary principles of shared watercourse law. This study provides an ideal analysis of conflict of norms in the Nile legal regime and the outcome of such conflict. It helps determine whether the contemporary principles of international watercourse law have anyway modified the Nile legal regime. Another important purpose of the study is to identify how principles of international watercourse law can be embraced and applied by the Nile Basin States in a cooperative manner. A comparative approach will be undertaken on the Nile legal regime and other regional shared watercourses legal regime, notably, the SADC with the hope that light will be shed on how Nile basin States can equitably utilize the Nile resources in a way that embraces the international principle of cooperation. In essence, it will be interesting to view how the developments in international watercourse law can affect the development of a stable Nile legal regime.

The study starts by examining what constitutes the Nile legal regime. Then it devotes a chapter to discuss the 1929 Nile Agreement which is considered to be the most controversial Agreement. Chapter 3 discusses the fundamental principles of international watercourse law. Chapter 4 discusses whether the principles of international watercourse law can be accommodated by the Agreement by means of interpreting it in the light of those principles. Finally, chapter 5 discusses the future of the Nile legal regime. In this chapter, general propositions are made on the best way forward for the Nile legal regime in a manner that embraces the principle of cooperation in the equitable sharing of the Nile.

http://hdl.handle.net/1842/29407

The University of Edinburgh

Annexe Thesis Digitisation Project 2018 Block 17

Already catalogued

Reviewing the Nile legal regime in the light of new principles of international law

Thesis or Dissertation

Doctoral

PhD Doctor of Philosophy