Following the Proper Channels

Bennett L. Bearden, J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. (2011), McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, is Director of the Water Policy and Law Institute at The University of Alabama. He has published several articles on water policy and legal issues and has served as Special Counsel to the Governor of Alabama (USA) on Water Law and Policy (2013-2017).

• AcknowledgmentsAbstractList of IllustrationsList of AbbreviationsList of Legislative MaterialsList of CasesIntroduction1 The Mekong River Basin1.1 Physical Setting1.2 Geology and Geomorphology1.3 Climate1.4 Water Resources 1.5 Mekong Tributaries1.5.1Tributaries 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 2.1.11957–1975: The Mekong Committee, the 1957 Mekong Statute, and the Water Charter2.1.21975–1978: The Joint Declaration 2.1.31978–1995: The Interim Mekong Committee 2.2 1995-Present: The 1995 Mekong Agreement 2.2.1The Mekong River Commission (mrc) 2.2.2National Interests and Water Law 2.2.3The Role of International Water Law 2.2.4Waterscapes 2.2.5Salient Provisions of the 1995 Mekong Agreement 2.2.6The Sustainable Development Paradigm2.2.7Balancing 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 3.2.1The 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty (us and Canada) 3.2.2The 1961 Columbia River Treaty (us and Canada) and the Okanagan River Basin 3.2.3A Community of Interest in Mekong Tributaries? The Influence of the River Oder and the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros (Hungary/Slovakia) Cases 3.2.4Arizona v. California 3.2.5The Nigeria-Niger Tributary Agreement 3.3 Chapter 3 Conclusion 4 Mekong Tributaries: Selected Case Studies 4.1 Hydropower Development on the Sesan River 4.1.1The Sesan River 4.1.2Development of the Yali Falls Dam 4.2 The Thai Water Grid 4.3 The Legal and Scientific Imperatives for De-marginalizing 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 6.2 The View Downstream: eias6.3 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 Mekong Tributaries and Shifting the Transformation of the Mekong Water Resources Spectrum Paradigm—A Proposal for the Way Ahead Bibliography Index