ABSTRACT
The essential purpose of this work is to explain how and why treaties over water differ in their design. Before delving into that specific question, however, the more general phenomenon of why treaties are negotiated at all needs to be understood. That is, why do some countries negotiate treaties over shared rivers while other countries do not? Why does cooperation arise in some situations and not in others? Once we understand why countries cooperate, the context will be set for explaining differences in treaty design. Understanding of how conflicting international legal principles are reconciled in practice will follow. This chapter reviews the literature and analyzes the hydro-political cooperation dilemma, paying special attention to the role of side-payments in fostering cooperation.
