International law refers to the rules and principles that govern the relationships between states and international actors. Below are resources that can help a researcher find international water law.
UN-Water
UN-Water coordinates the United Nations' work on water and sanitation. Although there is no single United Nations agency, fund, or programme dedicated exclusively to water issues, several UN agencies have programs dedicated to an aspect of water management or protection. Learn more about those member agencies and facts and news about global water issues on the UN-Water website.
GlobaLex - International Law Research
GlobaLex is an open-access electronic legal publication dedicated to international, comparative, and foreign law, maintained by NYU School of Law. It has several research guides that would be useful to those researching global water issues. Among others, the site contains the following relevant guides:
ECOLEX
The ECOLEX database is an information service on environmental law, operated jointly by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. It includes information on treaties, treaty decisions, national legislation, judicial decisions, and relevant literature. Users can access the abstracts and indexing information for each document, as well as the full text of most of the information provided.
InforMEA
InforMEA is the United Nations Information Portal on Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs). It is a one-stop portal for information on MEAs searchable by key terms across treaty texts, national plans and reports, laws, court decisions, and more. Researchers can also browse in the Marine and Freshwater topic.
Foreign law refers to the legal system of a specific country that governs the rights and obligations of individuals and organizations within that country's borders. Below are resources that will help researchers find the laws governing water use in foreign countries.
Brill's Foreign Law Guide - Environment & Natural Resources (available on campus or remotely with ASURITE)
This resource provides citations to environment and natural-resources laws arranged alphabetically by country, along with information about where to find that country's laws.
Global Legal Monitor
The Global Legal Monitor is an online publication of the Law Library of Congress covering legal news and developments worldwide. It is searchable by topic, jurisdiction, author, or keyword. Browsable topics include Water Quality, and Water Resources.
GlobaLex - Foreign Law Research
GlobaLex is an open-access electronic legal publication dedicated to international, comparative, and foreign law, maintained by NYU School of Law. This webpage contains country-specific research guides that explain how to access the laws of that county.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (available on campus or remotely with ASURITE)
This index, maintained by Berkeley Law, can be used to find articles and essays from countries all over the world. In addition to searching by keyword, one can use the Subjects tab to find articles about water and environmental protection.
World Legal Information Institute
The World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) is a free, independent, and non-profit global legal research facility developed by a number of Legal Information Institutes and other participants who support free access to the law. It includes more than 270 databases from 48 jurisdictions in 20 countries.