The law of international watercourses with special reference to the Danube catchment area

These statements can mean that the approach of the legal positivism js insufficient to expound of the legislation and the enforcement of legal rules relating to the utilization and protection of fresh-water resources, both in national framework and international level. On the contrary an adequat legislation and water management has to be based on the Ians of hydrological cycle on the one hand and it is necessary the economical and social backgrounds on the other. The second message of the European Water Charter is that with regard to the international catchment areas the international law as means of international cooperation and that of the settlements of disputes can't be neglected. This latter aspect will be our subject. The law of international watercourses has a modest subchapter in the manuels of international law, approximately 1 % of the total size of the printed book which an important part is dealing with the notion of international watercourse. In the works on international environmental law the shar e of the law of international watercourses don't reach the 10 %. In contrast with the general attitude of juristic works, the expansive abundance of monographs and articles dealing with the special subject of the law of international watercourses can be revealed, according to the great number of international treaties and agreements in force as well as that of international disputes in this field. Behind the general interest of juristic works the veritable question is the following: what is the real importance of water resources problems or challenges for international community in the time of interdependencies? An adequat reply postulates the summary of the main features of the law of international watercourses. The main features of the law of international watercourses At least 4 main features of this branch of international law have to be distinguised, namely its long historical development, its meta-legal dimension, /the extralegal factors of international law-making/ its particular character /originating from the overwhelming majority of bilateral and restricted multilateral treaties and agreements/ finally its changing position in the international environmental law. In considering that the last 3 features require an analyze in deept, in this context my remarks will be restricted to a brief commentary of the long historical development of the law of international watercourses. The consiseness of this part is due to the fact that my lecture would like to concentrate to the recent problems of the law of international watercourses. The brief history of the law of international watercourses This subject is dealing in deept by professor Teclaff in his book intituled "The River Basin in History and Law" /The Hague 1968/. The origins of the international regulation with regard to the international watercourses go far back before the development of the modem system of international law that is a product, roundly speaking of only the last four hundred years. The first agreement on the use of the transfrontier fountains was concluded by two Mesopotamian towns earlier than 3000 BC. Similary, in the framework of an amphictionie on the period of the Greek City States the change of the flow of watercourses was prohibited.