Otto Spijkers in China

Thanks to a generous grant by the Utrecht University Visiting Fellowship Programme, Otto Spijkers, researcher with the Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law, was able to go to Xiamen Law School (China) for three weeks (10-30 May 2015), to teach a course on international water law, provide feedback to a group of PhD students, and give a guest lecture at sister university Wuhan University Law School.

Introductory Course on International Water Law

Otto gave a total of 10 classes, which together constituted an introductory course on international water law. The course began with a general introduction to international water law and an historical overview. The students then examined the scope, general principles, procedures and institutions, and dispute settlement mechanisms under the UN Watercourses Convention and the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses. In the second part of the course, the discussions focused on the linkages between sustainable development and international water law, with special attention to the Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, a brief introduction was provided to particular regimes, including the cooperation regime of the Danube, Rhine, and the Meuse, and the Chinese approach to the joint management of transboundary watercourses with its neighbors. The students gave some wonderful presentations during the final sessions of the course.
The classes were attended by a group of students from China, Thailand, Bangladesh, Canada, the US and UK. It was a very enthusiastic group.

PhD salon

Otto Spijkers also participated in weekly sessions of the so-called “PhD salon,” a meeting of the PhD students of the China International Water Law (CIWL) research group at Xiamen Law School. He provided written and oral comments to the PhD outlines and some chapters and articles the students had drafted already. The research of this enthusiastic and highly talented group of students was very diverse. One student looked at reciprocity in international water law; another analyzed the community of interest approach. The principle of equitable utilization and the human rights-based approach to international water law were the topic of the research of two other students. Otto also attended the successful doctoral dissertation’s defense of one of the students.

Guest Lecture

Otto also gave a lecture at the China Institute for Boundary and Ocean Studies, of Wuhan University, on Friday 15 May 2015. This lecture analyzed how the sustainable development goals (SDGs) process might give a boost to the evolution of international water law towards a more sustainable development friendly legal framework. Three recommendations, derived from the SDG process, were made to call upon states:

1. to unambiguously to approach international water law as a legal framework to promote the sustainable development of water resources, and to interpret the bedrock principles of international water law in that “green” context;
2. to encourage the further development of the ecosystems approach to international water law;
3. to use the legal framework of international water law to facilitate public participation at all levels of water governance.