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43 Harv. Int'l L.J. 105 (2002)
The Changing Nile Basin Regime: Does Law Matter

handle is hein.journals/hilj43 and id is 111 raw text is: VOLUME 43, NUMBER 1, WINTER 2002 The Changing Nile Basin Regime: Does Law Matter? Jutta Brunne* Stephen J. Toope** I. INTRODUCTION Daily the Nile seemed to increase in grandeur and magnitude, and for a whole series of days we found our path running across something like an inland sea or delta, full of lovely tufted islands, some sinking and some emerging under the vibration of the waters. They had the lonely fragility of dreams in which one could only half believe. I could see now how it must be in the other great rivers of the world, the Yangtse or the Ganges or old Amazon. A whole world passing by in a kaleidoscope of color, yet always changing, always impermanent. -Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur or the Prince of Darkness' Just as the sensual aspects of the Nile are constantly changing, so too are the actors and social structures that shape its fate, and that of the millions of people who rely upon its life-giving waters. Only a few years ago the regime of the Nile Basin was one of unremitting and open conflict, or at least of incipient and barely camouflaged competition. Journalists, as well as politi- cal and legal analysts, delighted in quoting a succession of regional states- men, especially Egyptians, who spoke of the threat of war over scarce Nile resources. In the 1970s, Egyptian President Sadat and Ethiopian leader * Professor, Faculty of Law, the University of Toronto. Ref. iur., Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, 1985; LL.M., Master of Laws, Dalhousie University, 1987; Ass. iur., Hessen, Germany, 1989; Dr. iur., Johannes Gutenberg-Universitdir, 1989. ** Professor, Faculty of Law and Institute of Comparative Law, McGill University. A.B., Harvard Uni- versity, 1979; LL.B., B.C.L., McGill University, 1983; Ph.D. in Law, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1987. We wish to thank Richard Wodnicki, Hiroko Sawai, and Sasha Nowicki for their excellent research assistance. Mr. Wodnicki also provided English translations of materials in Arabic. Challenging com- ments were offered by Michael Byers, David Dyzenhaus, Ellen Hey, El Obaid A. El Obaid, and Roderick Macdonald. Our work also benefited from the insights of a number of commentators close to Nile Basin negotiations who wish to remain unnamed. Early stages of research for this Article were financially as- sisted by the Cooperative Security Program of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and Interna- tional Trade. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of McGill University and the University of Toronto, in the form of sabbatical leaves, and of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Jutta Brunnee benefited from the opportunity to conduct research at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign Public and International Law in Heidelberg. 1. LAWRENcE DURRELL, MONSIEUR OR THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS 156 (1974).

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