Read now: latest edition of Water International!
Volume 51, Issue 3 (2026) explores the role of law in advancing water security around the world. Across nine research articles, experts examine different legal and governance approaches used to address one of the most significant challenges of our time.
This is the fourth special issue of Water International edited by the International Association for Water Law (AIDA), an international non-profit organisation made up of water lawyers and non-lawyers directly involved in the management of water resources.
What’s inside?
This special issue explores the intersection of water security and law from multiple perspectives, including:
- How evolving legal frameworks are reshaping international water law in response to the global water crisis;
- The growing relevance of the UN Water Convention on strengthening transboundary water security across Africa;
- Legal approaches to international hydropower development projects in the La Plata River Basin;
- How climate change impacts may influence the Kishenganga Dam dispute between India and Pakistan;
- The evolution of legal frameworks for transboundary water resource development projects in the Western Balkans since the 1950s;
- The international water law principle of equitable and reasonable utilisation in the content of China’s water practices;
- Lessons from Latin America on aligning water security and legal certainty during extreme hydrological events;
- The role and limits of the law in guaranteeing of water security in Quebec;
- Recent reforms in groundwater legislation and institutions in China.
Most of the papers of the issue were presented at the XVII and XVIII IWRA World Water Congresses, held at Daegu, South Korea, and Beijing, China, in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
The relationship between law and water security will be further discussed at AIDA’s World Water Law Congress ‘Water Law and Governance in Times of Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss’, taking place at Oslo, Norway, on 24–26 June 2026.
