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Beyond semantics: Overcoming the normative incoherence surrounding the protection of international watercourse ecosystems
Author(s) -
Liu Yang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
review of european, comparative and international environmental law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 2050-0394
pISSN - 2050-0386
DOI - 10.1111/reel.12369
Subject(s) - normative , ecosystem , treaty , international law , space (punctuation) , terrestrial ecosystem , environmental resource management , field (mathematics) , environmental ethics , computer science , political science , ecology , environmental science , law , philosophy , biology , mathematics , pure mathematics , operating system
Protecting and preserving the ecosystems of international watercourses requires a coherent normative framework. Problems can arise where inconsistent terms are used to define and describe these shared resources. This leads to possible normative incoherence around the duties to protect and preserve ecosystems. At the heart of the matter are the diverse definitions used for shared freshwaters and international ecosystems. In many cases, there is a ‘terrestrial gap’—the geographical space created by the terms used to describe ‘international watercourse’ on the one hand, and ‘ecosystem’ on the other. More often than not, the former is defined in narrow geographical terms, while the latter is more broadly cast, to include related terrestrial elements. This article explores how the potential normative incoherence related to the protection and preservation of the ecosystems of an international watercourse might be overcome through three approaches, which are explored in treaty practice across the field.