ARTICLES

Decolonising peasants’ marginalisation in African water law
BARBARA VAN KOPPEN 
Principal Researcher, Southern Africa Regional Program, International Water Management Institute, South Africa
BARBARA SCHREINER
Chief Executive Officer, Water Integrity Network,
Germany
PINNIE SITHOLE
Consulting Manager, Pegasys, South Africa

Unlike the common recognition of legal pluralism in land tenure, legal pluralism in water tenure has hardly received attention, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where permit systems are widely adopted as single water law. Focusing on Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, this article identifies the injustices inflicted on peasants’ customary water rights that are traced back to the permit systems’ colonial roots, their minor revision but major expansion over time,  and revival especially under the Integrated Water Resource Management initiatives since the 1990s.

Meaningful public participation in the management of transboundary river basins
OTTO SPIJKERS  
Utrecht University School of Law
CATHY SUYKENS
Utrecht University and KU Leuven

This paper analyses the conditions set by international and European water law to assure “meaningful” public participation in transboundary water management. At the international  level, we focus on the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, and the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. This paper provided an overview  of standards for “meaningful” public participation in transboundary water management which can be based on the treaties and directives just-mentioned.

The ownership of inshore fisheries in Scotland: an opportunity for community ownership?
SIR CRISPIN AGNEW OF LOCHNAW BT QC  
THOMAS APPLEBY, EMMA BEAN 
University of the West of England

The Scottish Government has pledged to reform inshore fisheries by 2020, while the UK Government is in the process of reforming fisheries legislation with the Fisheries Bill, brought forward in anticipation of the departure of the UK from the EU. As the necessary starting point for any regulatory reform is an understanding of the existing rights subject to regulation, this article investigates the nature of the existing rights to fish in inshore Scottish waters and assesses whether reform of the ownership of Scotland’s fishery needs to be assessed at the same time as its regulation.

Non-stationarity and climate change: what are the legal requirements of decision makers in the Victorian water sector to take into account the effects of climate change?
THOMAS JENKINS 
Bachelor of Environment (BEnv) and Master of Environment (MEnv), The University of Melbourne

This article aims to provide an analysis of the threats that climate change brings to, and the implications for, water governance and decision-makers in the Victorian water sector. The article provides a summation of the predicted impacts of climate change on Australia and Victoria, and considers the key  decision-makers both at the Federal and State level.

CASE COMMENTARY

In defence of cost-benefit analysis and environmental valuation
JOHN CORKINDALE  
Kingston University

STRATEGIC ISSUES
Scotland 
Strategic Review of Charges
SARAH HENDRY
Senior Lecturer in Law, Centre for Water Law, 
Policy and Science, University of Dundee