The human right to water and International Economic Law

The book examines the issue of the harmonization of human rights law and international trade and investment law through the lens of the human right to water. In particular, it considers the problem of the compatibility of the liberalization of water services with the human right to water from an international law perspective and suggests paths of coordination with conflicting norms in trade and investment law, where possible. The book first focuses on the analysis of the legal basis, status, content and obligations arising from the international human right to water. Then, it deals with possible normative conflicts that in the context of the liberalization of water services may occur between the right to water and, respectively, international investment rules and international trade rules. In this connection, the book evaluates several techniques to harmonize these divergent obligations. The model of analysis employed starts by assessing whether there is room to prevent the rise of normative conflicts. Then, it continues by resorting to interpretive techniques to settle the dispute where there is no genuine normative conflict. Finally, it ends by establishing whether, in contexts other than human rights fora, the right to water may prevail over trade and investment rules in case of irreconcilable normative conflicts. The book concludes that there is no unequivocal answer to the question of the compatibility between the liberalization of water services and the human right to water. It depends on the legal framework taken into consideration. International investment law leaves States with sufficient leeway to regulate in the public interest, and, accordingly, allows them to strike a fair balance between the involvement of private foreign investments in the water sector and the guarantees of availability and affordability of water services. On the contrary, the current international legal framework for trade in services is not sufficiently developed to provide guarantees in the case of liberalization of sensitive markets, such as that of water services.