International marine mammal law by Nikolas Sellheim, Published by Springer, 2021;30:417–420 pp, €70.84, hardback.

• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Author: Iyan Offor
• Date: 01 November 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12394

author also add resses the cont roversial presen ce of States’ sover-

eignty in the ILC ’s Draft Articles and it s relationship to cooperatio n

and management . The analysis pr oceeds with Sind ico delving into

the procedur al obligations to exc hange informatio n, to monitor,

to notify and to un dertake an env ironmental im pact assessme nt.

Finally, the chapter p resents the obli gations related to the p rotection

and preser vation of transb oundary aqu ifers. The aut hor concludes

this chapter by ack nowledging that, overall, th e ILC’s Draft Articles

should be considered a significant development, as ‘they provide an

overarching nor mative framewor k for countries wishing to cooper-

ate in the field of tr ansboundary aquif er management’ (at 107).

The extent to whi ch such a normative fram ework is binding upon

countries and re flects cus tomary law is add ressed in Chapte r 5.

Sindico firs t analyses the de bate on the future f ormat of the ILC’s

Draft Ar ticles. He concl udes that the Draft Arti cles should be con-

sidered as non- legally binding guidelines for States intending to co-

operate over the management of a transboundar y aquifer. However,

despite this sof t law nature, some p rovisions appea r to be crysta l-

lizing into customary international law, which is described by the

author as a ‘magic t rick whereby a non- legally binding instr ument

becomes, alm ost magically, legally bin ding’ (at 118). This seems to be

what has happene d with the procedural provis ions related to moni-

toring the regul ar exchange of information and wit h the obligations

to notify and to un dertake an environmental i mpact assessm ent or

to establish a jo int mechanism of cooperati on.

In Chapter 6, the a uthor explores the very few e xisting specific

agreements or arrangements on transboundary aquifers with the

ultimate goal of determining whether customary international law

is developing in th e field of transboundar y aquifer management. To

this end, Sindico analyses the differences between agreements— or

treaties accord ing to the 1969 Vienna Conventi on on the Law of

Treaties— and arrangements— or less fo rmal types of a greements—

and the presen ce of the four proced ural obligatio ns identified as

possible intern ational custom ary law in the prev ious chapter. The

author then provides a very useful study on whether and how these

agreements and arrangements have been implemented after their

adoption or if th ey have just become ‘paper t igers’ (at 163). This anal-

ysis constitute s a long- needed contribution to t he literature on the

law of transboun dary aquifers. The aut hor concludes by identify ing

an emerging pattern according to which several of these agreements

and arrangeme nts have been info rmed or driven by d onor- driver proj-

ects. The m ost recent example of such pr ojects— namely t he Project

for the Environme ntal Protecti on and Sustain able Developme nt of

the Guarani Aq uifer System, or th e Governance of Gro undwater

Resources in Transbou ndary Aquif ers (GGRETA)— has brought the

emergence of an inte rnational law on tr ansboundar y aquifers an d

of the ILC’s Draft A rticles to the attenti on of local policymaker s and

stakeholde rs. As Sindico notes, once th ese projects and their f inan-

cial resources end, however, the implementation of the emergent

international r ules does not always co ntinue. He determin es that ‘[w]

e have moved away from proj ects whose outcom es helped shape th e

international l aw of transbound ary aquifer s’ and ‘are now moving

into a new phase of tra nsboundar y aquifer cooper ation in which a

new generation of p rojects ca n rely on the emerg ing internation al

law of transboun dary aquifers to develop s ounder projects and f os-

ter their implementation’ (at 170).

Finally, the conclus ion contained in C hapter 7 synthe sizes the

helpful and informative normative roadmap provided throughout

the book. It als o foresees, pro bably rightly, that m ore and more

countries will s oon realize the val ue of transboun dary aquifer s and

seek guidance o n engaging with the other aq uifer States.

Overall, the book provides a comprehensive answer to a sce-

nario in which aquifer States are genuinely interested in the effec-

tive management of t heir shared transboun dary aquifer. In addition ,

Sindico manages to create a pleasant and didactical reading expe-

rience, even when d ealing with an iss ue as thorny as inter national

customary l aw. The book also reflects th e extensive theoretic al and

practica l experience th e author has gain ed in the field of law an d

policy of tran sboundary aquife rs in the last several yea rs. Therefore,

this book represents an updated and required reading for policymak-

ers, practitioners and other stakeholders, lawyers and non- lawyers,

working in the fi eld of transbou ndary aquife r management, e spe-

cially if one consid ers how few comprehensive stu dies on the inter-

national law of tra nsboundary aquifer s exist.

Laura Movilla Pateiro

University of Vigo

Correspondence

lauramovilla@uvigo.es

|

BOOK REVIEWS 417

DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12394

BOOK REVIEW

Published by Springer, 2020, 225 pp, €70.84, hardback.

Tensions reign among comm unities with ves ted interest s in the

regulation of mar ine mammal hunt s. Foremost amo ng these ten-

sions are those be tween advoc ates of sustainab le use and con-

INTERNATIONAL MARINE MAMMAL LAW by Nikolas Sellheim

servationists, between hunting communities (indigenous and

commercial) and a nimal liberat ionists, and c rucially, betwee n the

animals themse lves and the huma n legal systems a nd actors that

profess to govern the ir lives. Each of these tension s are borne out

in interesting ways in Nikolas Sellheim’s new book which forwards