Azaria, Danae --- "Fresh water and energy in international courts and tribunals: hydroelectricity installations on transboundary rivers" [2018] ELECD 1243; in Tignino, Mara; Bréthaut, Christian (eds), "Research Handbook on Freshwater Law and International Relations" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 215

Book Title: Research Handbook on Freshwater Law and International Relations

Editor(s): Tignino, Mara; Bréthaut, Christian

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781785360640

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Fresh water and energy in international courts and tribunals: hydroelectricity installations on transboundary rivers

Author(s): Azaria, Danae

Number of pages: 19

Abstract/Description:

The use of international watercourses for the production of hydroelectricity is becoming increasingly attractive to States, since renewable sources of energy are perceived as an appropriate means for addressing climate change and energy security concerns. However, hydroelectric projects involve enormous investment and have significant effects: social, economic, environmental and others. Against this background, when hydroelectric power generation projects are constructed and operated on international watercourses, disputes between riparians often arise. This study demonstrates how international courts and tribunals have struck a balance between the rights of use of riparian states on transboundary rivers in the context of disputes concerning hydroelectricity projects; and how they have dealt with the antagonism between, on the one hand, the permanence (and need for stability for the construction and operation) of hydro-electric projects and, on the other hand, the development of international law and the change of scientific and environmental conditions concerning the transboundary river.