Water & Environmental Law and Institutions

The module is aimed at top and mid-level decision makers, technical experts and professional trainers and researchers in relevant technical and managerial fields of work in both the public and private sector. All participants who complete this course receive a Certificate of Attendance from the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.

The key question of the course is how can water and environmental resources be managed sustainably and what are the advantages and disadvantages of different instruments and institutional approaches.

Subjects covered at the international level are:

• the UN institutional framework relevant to water and environmental law and management;
• theoretical concepts of multi-level governance, good governance, the rule of law, participatory approaches and international relations theories;
• general principles of international law, and international water and environmental law;
• elaboration and analysis of the UN Law on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses and international treaties on climate change, desertification, biodiversity, depletion of the ozone layer and forestry;
• some regional water and environmental agreements;
• major water and environmental disputes and cases;
• negotiation theory, and
• dispute resolution.

Subjects covered at national level are:

• national water and environmental law systems,
• institutional and management arrangements;
• decentralization, decision-making and communication; and
• contract management.

The courses are taught in such manner that the national component plays an important part in the international part of the course, and the international component is interwoven into the national dimension. The courses use interactive lectures, practices in stakeholder interviews and analysis, negotiation exercises, role-plays, workshops, case studies, the internet and audio-visual means.