ABSTRACT
With the year 2003 designated as the year of ‘international freshwater’, it is an appropriate time to consider more critically the role of water law in meeting some of the global challenges related to the effective management of the world’s shared water resources. This article examines the regime established by the 1992 Helsinki Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (ECE Water Convention), 1 concluded under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and identifies some of the challenges facing it in the future. Has the ECE Water Convention had any impact on improving transboundary water-resource management in Europe, or is it, as some assert, merely an instrument of ‘symbolic politics’? Is there an identifiable legal regime effectively operating and evolving? What is the level of implementation and how tangible are the results on the ground?
