At the UN common meeting in 1997, an overpowering majority of States voted for the adoption of the United countries conference at the legislations of the Non-Navigational makes use of of foreign Watercourses – an international overarching framework governing the rights and tasks of States sharing freshwater systems.  Globally, there are 263 across the world shared watersheds, which drain the territories of one hundred forty five international locations and characterize extra than forty percentage of the Earth's land floor. therefore, inter-State cooperation in the direction of the sustainable administration of transboundary water provides, in response to appropriate overseas criminal tools, is a subject of the most important significance, particularly within the context of the present international water crisis. 

This volume provides an evaluate of the function and relevance of the UN Watercourses conference and describes and evaluates its access into strength as a key section of transboundary water governance. up to now, the conference nonetheless calls for additional contracting States ahead of it might input into strength. The authors describe the drafting and negotiation of the conference and its dating to different multilateral environmental agreements. a sequence of case stories check the function of the conference at numerous degrees: nearby (European Union, East Africa, West Africa, vital Asia, imperative the US and South America), river basin (e.g. the Mekong and Congo) and nationwide (e.g. Ethiopia and Mexico).  The ebook concludes via offering how destiny implementation could extra improve foreign cooperation within the administration of water assets, to advertise biodiversity conservation in addition to sustainable and equitable use.