ABSTRACT
While the central role of effective institutional mechanisms in the implementation of international water law has long been recognized and promoted, the key role played by such institutions in the ongoing normative elaboration of international water law and in the development of related cooperative practice is becoming ever more apparent. As the practice of international water cooperation becomes more highly proceduralized and more critically dependent on complex technical data, ecological, social, and economic-river basin organizations are not so much regarded as being helpful to but absolutely essential for sustainable and optimal utilization of shared water resources—the overarching aim of international water law.
