Water Security: A Litmus Test for International Law
Publisher: Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law
Author(s): Bjørn‐Oliver Magsig
Date: 2020
Topics: Conflict Causes, Governance, Renewable Resources
While water security is now being discussed at the highest political level, the debate on how the concept should actually be implemented to improve the management of our transboundary freshwater resources is still in its infancy. Further, the absence of law in much of this debate impedes efforts to utilize water security as a change agent for international water law and diplomacy – an unsatisfactory situation threatening global stability and international security. This article demonstrates that a fresh conceptualization of water security is not only required to bring about the desperately needed change in the underlying perceptions of sovereignty, but that it is also possible. However, this will only work if international law plays its part in turning the buzzword into a meaningful concept. By supporting the contemporary understanding of water security through strengthening normative developments regarding the concepts of common concern and cooperative sovereignty, these concepts of international law could simultaneously be better employed to tackle other increasingly complex global challenges.