The interaction of water and soil in international law

Abstract

The purpose of this scoping is to examine the extent to which international law reflects on the water
and soil nexus with special attention to few most relevant issues like pollution, floods, land uses impacting
water resources as well as climate change impac t on water and soil. Some of international regulations
directly regulate issues related to water and soil nexus. Many others, though water and soil are not
necessary a primary subject of their regulation, they support the objectives of protection and suitable
development of water and soil.
The extent to which international law regulates the nexus between soil and water will be assessed
in respect to four key issues: 1) scope of treaties defining as geographical and functional application of
a treaty, which identifies resource in question like watercourse, groundwater, wetland, soil, land, catchment;
2) substantive norms reflecting right and obligations pertaining to management of the relevant resources;
3) procedural norms offering implementation mechanisms enabling effective implementation of
the substantive norms, 4) dispute settlement framing the way to peaceful solution of any dispute among
the state parties.
Key words: international law, water law, natural resources, climate change, ecology.