* Prof. McCaffrey criticizes the UNILC Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers

The American Journal of International Law (issue No.103 of 2009) hosts an article by Prof. Stephen McCaffrey entitled “The International Law Commission adopts Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers”. The article carries a critique of the draft Articles which were adopted by the UN International Law Commission in 2008, and which were subsequently acknowledged by the UN General Assembly at its Sixty-third session by Resolution 63/124 adopted on 11 December 2008. The author critizes the Draft Articles on the grounds that they they overlap in part with the provisions of the 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses, to the risk of generating confusion as a result. Moreover, Prof. McCaffrey takes exception to the general principle of the sovereignty of aquifer states, enshrined in the Draft Articles.
The final version of this article was originally published in the American Journal of International Law (103 AJIL 272 (2009)).
View the article here