International Watercourses Law in the Nile River Basin: Three States at a Crossroads

The Nile River basin is home to more than 400 million inhabitants across eleven sovereign states. The Nile is the essential source of water for domestic, industrial and agricultural uses in the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan, and in some measures, in Ethiopia. Yet for more than a century, the basin's hydro-legal discourse exhibited a series of conflicting claims and counter-claims involving rights of utilization of the resource. This book examines the multifaceted legal regulation of the Nile, starting with the Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty of May 1902. It also scrutinizes the non-treaty based claims of rights of the basin states to the Nile waters, examining in context the relevant rules of customary international law that set out rights and riparian obligations in the utilization of shared watercourses. This undertaking involves a comprehensive presentation and assessment of contemporary riparian positions espoused in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia with a view to understanding the origin, essence and legal effects of the key concept of 'natural-historical rights'. Following review of new developments since the 1990's, the book shall likewise present on the legal and conceptual impediments that held back progress in negotiations on the Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement. The author reveals how the legal standard embedded in the 'equitable and reasonable utilization' principle entrenches in current legal discourses to define the basic essence of riparian rights and constrain the discretion of the basin states.