Focus - Water Law

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The International Environmental Law Research Centre is an independent research organisation focusing on international and comparative environmental law issues, with a particular emphasis on India and East Africa.

The aim of the IELRC is to contribute to the establishment of legal and institutional frameworks which foster sustainable environmental management in developing countries in an equitable international context...    [ read more ]

Latest news on IELRC.ORG

Fifteenth Lok Sabha, Standing Committee on Finance (2011-12) Forty-Second Report, The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010. Dr. Usha Ramanathan was one of the expert witnesses deposing in front of the Standing Committee [read more]

Publication of: P. Cullet & S. Koonan, Water Law in India - An Introduction to Legal Instruments (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011). [read more]

Publication of the paperback edition of P. Cullet, A. Gowlland-Gualtieri, R. Madhav & U. Ramanathan eds, Water Law for the Twenty-first Century: National and International Aspects of Water Law Reforms in India (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011). [read more]

Workshop on the Right to Sanitation - Lessons from India in Geneva on 27-28 January 2011. For more information [read more]

Report co-authored by Usha Ramanathan for the Ministry of Environment and Forests on forest land diversion in Orissa related to proposed mining by Vedanta. [read more]

Paper by Usha Ramanathan 'A State of Surveillance'. [read more]

Publication in The Hindu of Usha Ramanathan's 'Implications of Registering, Tracking, Profiling', 5 April 2010. [read more]

Publication of: P. Cullet, A. Gowlland-Gualtieri, R. Madhav & U. Ramanathan eds, Water Governance in Motion: Towards Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Water Laws (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2010). [read more]

Realisation of the Fundamental Right to Water in Rural Areas – Implications of the Evolving Policy Framework for Drinking Water

The fundamental right to water in rural areas is well-established in India, but the actual content of this right has not been elaborated upon in judicial decisions. There is no general drinking water legislation that would provide this missing content. This analysis of various initiatives taken by the government for rural drinking water supply finds that these initiatives do not amount to a comprehensive binding legal framework covering all the main aspects of the fundamental right to water.

Water Law in a Globalised World: the Need for a New Conceptual Framework

Water law is at a crossroads. Its basic structure and principles are being challenged by the increasingly global dimension of water issues. Yet, neither the international framework nor national water laws acknowledge the intrinsic links between the global water cycle and access to water at the local level. Water law must be reconceived around a broader understanding of water while being allowed at the same time to shed its old sectoral framework that makes little space for integration with other related areas of law such as environmental and human rights law.

Land Acquisition, Eminent Domain and the 2011 Bill

The displaced and their advocates have been campaigning for a law that will limit the coercive power of the State in taking over land. The Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 adopts some of the language and concerns from the sites of conflict. But by beginning with the premise that acquisition is inevitable and that industrialisation, urbanisation and infrastructure will have lexical priority, the LARR Bill 2011 may have gained few friends among those whom involuntary acquisition has displaced, and those for whom rehabilitation has been about promises that have seldom been kept.

Kenya: Justice Sector and the Rule of Law

The premise of this report is based on Kenya’s policy blueprint, Vision 2030, which places rule of law at the center of its goals. It was commenced at the same time as the nation was recuperating from the post-election poll, which resulted in many Kenyans expressing disappointment at the nation’s democratic institutions. The study, produced by AfriMAP and the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa, examines and makes recommendations for the following topics: justice sector and rule of law; legal and institutional framework; government track record in respect to rule of law; management of the justice system; independence of the bench and bar; criminal justice; access to justice and the role of donor agencies.

Cultural Legitimacy and Regulatory Transitions for Climate Change - A Discursive Framework

Because of its tremendous temporal and spatial scope, climate change poses profound regulatory issues. Significant transboundary effects and spatially differentiated effects make it highly desirable that international regulatory mechanisms are utilised in order to arrive at effective mitigation and adaptation solutions. Yet, the different spaces that states occupy in terms of causation and effect makes agreement on what must be regulated through international mechanisms and indeed how to regulate such subject matter. Consequently, this paper proposes that legitimacy needs to be considered one of the core concerns of international climate change regulation and governance. The aim of this paper is to clarify the role of the concept of legitimacy in international climate change regulation, and to set forth a specific discursive approach aimed at identifying legitimacy-enhancing design features for internationally regulating climate change.