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Development. Copyright © 1999 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (199906) 42:2; 109–111; 008420.
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Books on the International Water Tribunal The following three books belong to a Case Books series on the pronouncements of the International Water Tribunal (IWT) founded in 1981 and based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The series also includes the Declaration of Amsterdam; Pollution; Management; Background and Results. The Tribunal is an international and independent jury providing individuals and local organizations with an opportunity to present their complaints against water management projects. The first Tribunal session held in February 1983 concentrated on river and marine pollution cases in Western Europe, while the second session, 1992, mainly focused on water management projects carried out by industrialized countries in Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and Africa. After hearing plaintiffs and defendants, the Tribunal decides according to international and national legislation and principles. Environmental and Water Law in the South. José M. Borrero Navia (ed.), International Books, Utrecht, 1994. ISBN 90 6224 9000. ISBN 90 6224 903 5. Environmental and Water Law in the South provides interesting information on legal instruments available in constitutional principles and international and national law for the protection of water systems in different countries. Since the oldest compilation of laws, from Roman law to modern international declarations, natural resources have always been
considered res communis, common property, or even a ‘Common Heritage of Mankind’ (UN Declaration of Sea bed and the Ocean Floor, 1970). Present national and international environmental principles generally acknowledge the importance of the basic human right to live in a healthy environment, justice among generations particularly regarding the sound use of the planet’s natural resources, the sanctity and uniqueness of living forms and the fundamental right of people to sustainable livelihoods. Nonetheless, similar criteria are far from generating rules of international law protecting the environment against contamination, inadequate use or deterioration. The author defines the technical and moral sources of contamination as the ‘contaminating spirit’ which has destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of humid, tropical jungle, exterminated innumerable indigenous cultures and decimated the stratospheric ozone. However, despite the efforts in national and international law – accurately reviewed by the author in the second part of the book – the economic conditions of most of the southern countries continue to play a major role in influencing the development and enforcement of their environmental laws. At present, most of these countries confront not only the threats of desertification, deforestation and pollution, but also the intensification of poverty which is linked to environmental deterioration. The relationship between poverty and the
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