Profs. Tamar Meshel and Moin Yahya co-author new publication

University of Alberta Faculty of Law Professors Tamar Meshel and Moin Yahya have co-authored a new publication examining international water law from a Coasean perspective.

The article, “International Water Law and Fresh Water Dispute Resolution: A Coasean Perspective,” appears in the journal, University of Colorado Law Review.

In it, Meshel and Yahya analyze the rules provided by international water law for resolving interstate fresh water disputes using the normative Coase theorem, a legal and economic approach developed by Ronald Coase.

The Coasean approach suggests that if the legal rules facilitate less costly bargaining, then more efficient resource allocation will result.

Meshel and Yahya apply this insight to evaluating the efficiency of different international water law rules in the resolution of interstate fresh water disputes in order to ensure an optimal and efficient allocation of water resources.

They conclude that the no-significant harm rule and the associated duty to cooperate are best situated to achieve proper water allocations among states.