The geometric adjudication of water rights in international rivers

TL;DR

This paper develops geometric rules for allocating water rights in international rivers, formalizing principles like Limited Territorial Sovereignty and applying them to the Nile River dispute.

Contribution

It introduces a family of geometric allocation rules that implement downstream transfers, formalizing legal principles in water rights adjudication.

Findings

Rules formalize principles like Limited Territorial Sovereignty

Application to Nile River illustrates dispute resolution

Provides a theoretical framework for international water allocation

Abstract

We study the adjudication of water rights in international rivers. We characterize allocation rules that formalize focal principles to deal with water disputes in a basic model. Central to our analysis is a family of geometric rules that implement concatenated transfers downstream. They can be seen as formalizing Limited Territorial Sovereignty, as suggested in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. We apply our rules to the case of the Nile River, with a long history of disputes between downstream and upstream nations