ARTICLES

Alienating the private sector: implications  of the invalidation of the water law by the Indonesian Constitutional Court
MOHAMAD MOVA AL’AFGHANI 
Director of the Center for Regulation, Policy and Governance (CRPG), Lecturer at the Faculty of Law,
Universitas Ibn Khaldun Bogor

In 2015 the Indonesian Constitutional Court invalidated Law number 7 of 2004 on Water Resources. At the heart of the Judicial Review was the extent of the private sector’s involvement in Indonesia’s water sector and the effort to regain ‘state control’ of water resources, as required by the Constitution. In order to realise ‘state control’, the Constitutional Court decreed that state-owned and region-owned enterprises should be  prioritised in the management of water resources. Furthermore, involvement of private enterprise should be restricted and only become possible after water is allocated to other priorities. Unfortunately, the Court did not define what is meant by ‘private sector’. This paper criticises the decision and discusses its far-reaching implications.

Legal Europeanisation in three dimensions: water legislation in Turkey
BURCIN DEMIRBILEK, DAVID BENSON  
Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Cornwall

Water legislation in Turkey continues to undergo a gradual Europeanisation, despite a slowing European Union (EU) accession process, raising questions over how it is occurring. As a condition of accession to the EU, Turkey has been compelled to adopt the Union’s water acquis, comprised of multiple sectoral policy instruments. Few studies, however, have sought to measure the sectoral volume, scope and velocity of Europeanisation in Turkish water legal frameworks during this period. By developing an evaluative approach, based on aqualitative assessment of these three ‘dimensions’ of legal Europeanisation, this study shows that the influence of EU accession on domestic water law has proved variable. While some areas of Turkish water legislation, primarily related to nitrates pollution, river basin planning and coastal bathing water, demonstrate significant Europeanisation, others have experienced less transformative change. Meanwhile, elements of the EU water acquis have yet to be adopted. Prospects for the future development of Turkish water legislation are then discussed on the basis of the analysis.

Managing flood risk in Europe: legal, institutional and policy aspects, with a special attention to the Danube River Basin
ELENA QUADRI  
Research Associate – Water Resources Research and Documentation Centre (WARREDOC); 
University for Foreigners of Perugia (Italy);  Member of the International Association for Water Law (AIDA); Member of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA)

This paper looks at the management and mitigation of flood risk by the Danube River basin States, and at the legal measures adopted by the Contracting Parties of the Danube RiverCommission. A number of mainly ‘soft law’ instruments,programmes and pilot projects emerge from the survey and analysis, with a particular focus on the recent Flood RiskManagement Plan for the Danube River Basin District adopted in 2015 by the basin States. The paper aims to illustrate how the Danube countries manage and seek to mitigate the risks associated with floods, and to thus implement the EU Flood Risk Directive, with an eye also to the achievement of the environmental objectives of the EU Water FrameworkDirective. The UNECE programmes under the umbrella of the 1992 Helsinki Convention are also relevant in this context, and are canvassed in the paper.