ARTICLES

Managed retreat of agricultural water
STEPHANIE M STERN   
Professor of Law, University of Arizona James E Rogers College of Law
A DAN TARLOCK
University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Tech

Climate change is stressing agriculture in arid regions such as the American West. This article proposes a novel application of managed retreat to ease the pain for drought-stricken small farmers and to reallocate water rights to instream flows. In the United  States  and  other  countries,  managed  retreat  relocates households from residences in severe climate risk zones by buying the properties and dedicating them to open space. The article considers how the federal government can retreat agricultural water by buying farmland with water rights or severable water rights when available and permanently restricting water consumption. Although the article focuses on the American West, agricultural managed retreat could benefit other countries facing the  negative  synergies  from  climate  change  and  pre-existing misallocations of agriculture and water.

Iran’s approach to transboundary watercourses under international law
JOSEPH W DELLAPENNA 
Beijing University School of Transnational Law, Shenzhen, China
FARNAZ SHIRANI BIDABADI
School of Law, Central South University, Changsha, China

International (transboundary) waters often lead to international cooperation through agreements between riparian states, but they can also lead to disputes, though rarely to outright conflicts, between states. These needs and risks are especially salient now because of drought, climate disruption, contamination, lack of proper water resources management, and other factors across the planet,  particularly  in  arid  and  semi-arid  countries  as  in  the Middle East. Iran, where water has always been a scarce and valuable resource, is a prime example. This article considers how Iran manages its transboundary watercourses in cooperation and in competition with its neighbours and how the current international legal frameworks could support improved cooperation. The analysis examines Iran’s transboundary water agreements with its neighbours and looks to the UN Watercourses Convention (1997) and the Berlin Rules on Water Resources (2004)  as  the  most  recent  comprehensive  summaries  of  the relevant international law to provide guidance drawn from global legal experience.

STRATEGIC ISSUES –SCOTLAND
PROFESSOR SARAH HENDRY  
Dundee Law School & the UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, University of Dundee

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