Programme

11 May 2019, Room 401, Wuhan University CIBOS Building

9:00-9:15

Opening remarks (MC: Kong Lingjie)

Sergei Vinogradov (Dundee); Xiong Xiaoyu (Wuhan)

9:15-9:30: Group photo

09:30-10:50

Session I – Recent developments in international water law: general assessment

Speakers: Patricia Wouters, Feng Yan, Kong Lingjie, Zhang Fan

Chair: Sergei Vinogradov; and Commentators: Owen McIntyre, Otto 

Spijkers

1. Patricia Wouters, The duty to cooperate in the international law 

governing transboundary Waters – with a focus on China’s “soft-path”

2. Feng Yan, Differences among the Parties to the UN Watercourses 

Convention

3. Kong Lingjie, International jurisprudence of the law of international 

watercourses: selected issues

4. Zhang Fan, Global opening of the UNECE Water Convention: 

development, implications and challenges

10:50-11:05 Tea break

11:05-11:40 Comments, questions and discussions

12:00-13:30 Lunch (Luojia Villa)

13:45-14:45

Session II – Transboundary water cooperation and international law: relevant legal issues

Speakers: Owen McIntyre, Otto Spijkers, Su Yu

Chair: Patricia Wouters; and commentators: Sergei Vinogradov, Kong 

Lingjie

1. Owen McIntyre, State responsibility in international law for damage to 

transboundary freshwaters: the emergence of a new ecosystems-based 

paradigm?

2. Otto Spijkers, Reflections on the dispute over the status and use of the 

waters of the Silala between Chile and Bolivia currently pending before the 

International Court of Justice

3. Su Yu, A communicative approach to normativity in international water 

Law – with a special focus on China’s transboundary waters practices

14:45-15:15 Comments, questions and discussions

15:15-15:30 Tea break

15:30-16:50

Session III – Transboundary water cooperation between China and the neighbouring countries: law, policy and technical perspectives

Speakers: Sergei Vinogradov, Chen Jiwei, David J. Devlaeminck, Tian 

Fuqiang

Chair: Owen McIntyre; and commentator: Patricia Wouters

1. Sergei Vinogradov, China and transboundary waters: the northern 

neighbours’ perspective

2. Chen Jiwei, Transboundary water cooperation between China and the 

neighboring countries

3. David J. Devlaeminck, Revisiting China’s vote against the UNWC: time 

to take a second look?

4. Tian Fuqiang, Transboundary rivers conflict and cooperation database

16:50-17:20 Comments, questions and discussions

17:20-17:30

Closing remarks (MC: Kong Lingjie)

Otto Spijkers (Utrecht)

18:00-19:30 Dinner (Luojia Villa)

List of speakers and participants

Speakers

Professor Sergei Vinogradov

Dr. Sergei Vinogradov (LLB, PhD Moscow State University) is working in the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK. His main areas of expertise include international law of natural resources, law of the sea and environmental law. Dr. Vinogradov has published extensively on issues related to transboundary watercourses, environmental regulation of petroleum activities, cross-border pipelines, and protection of the marine environment. He is a member of the International Council of Environmental Law and Commission on Environmental Law of the IUCN/World Conservation Union. He has been involved as a legal consultant in numerous international projects and activities under the auspices of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the Energy Charter Secretariat, OSCE, the European Union, UNESCO, UNEP, UNDP/GEF, and the World Bank. Dr. Vinogradov participated in drafting and negotiating international agreements, such as the ECT Draft Transit Protocol, agreements for the Black and Caspian seas, rivers Dniester, Kura, and other transboundary basins. Dr. Vinogradov provided legal advice to the Mekong River Commission, International Fund for the Aral Sea, national governments and development agencies operating mostly in developing and transition economy countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Central and South-East Asia, and Africa.

Professor Patricia Wouters

Professor Patricia Wouters (BA, LLB, University of Ottawa, Canada; LLM, University of California at Berkeley; DES, PhD, University of Geneva, IUHEI, Switzerland), formerly visiting Professor, Xiamen University Law School, founding Director of China International Water Law Programme (Xiamen), founding Director of the Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, under the auspices of UNESCO (Dundee, Scotland). Professor Wouters has published extensively, presented her research around the world, supervised a significant cohort of PhD students from across the globe (all focused on international water law), served as Chair of the United Nations University Institute of Water, Environment and Health, was appointed to the Global Water Partnership Technical Experts Committee, and the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Water Security.

Professor Chen Jiwei

Dr. Chen Jiwei is a professor engineer and the Chief Engineer (DDG Level) of the International Economic & Technical Cooperation and Exchange Center, Ministry of Water Resources of the PRC. He has engaged in water science & technology and transboundary rivers management for many years. As the director of project management office, he was in charge of a number of National Key Scientific & Technological Projects in terms of identification and administration. He organized the preparation of national and ministerial programs for development of water science and technology as well as transboundary rivers. He drafted several inter-governmental or inter-ministerial agreements on transboundary rivers. He has been undertaking policy and technology research on transboundary rivers. A number of his articles and books were published.

Professor Owen McIntyre

Prof. Owen McIntyre is a Professor and the Director of the LL.M. (Environmental & Natural Resources Law) Programme at the School of Law, University College Cork. He is also Co-Director of the newly established Centre for Law and the Environment (CLE) at UCC. He has served as the inaugural Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law’s Specialist Group on Water and Wetlands, as a member of the Project Complaints Mechanism of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). He is a former member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency. In 2013 he was appointed as a member of the statutory (Irish) Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board. Prof McIntyre holds honorary positions at the School of Law and the Centre for International Boundary and Ocean Studies (CIBOS), Wuhan University, and at the China International Water Law (CIWL) Programme at Xiamen University Law School. He holds a Visiting Professorship at Charles University Prague and has been an associate lecturer at the University of Dundee.

Professor Feng Yan

Ms. Feng Yan has a Ph.D. in Physical Geography from Nanjing University in 2000, is Professor of the Institute of International Rivers and Eco-security, and the Asian International Rivers Center (AIRC) at Yunnan University since 2006. She has experience in water governance and policy, International water law, International water resources allocation, environmental services payments, and natural resource development and management more than 20 years. She is the lead investigator on the Project of Attribution and Ecological Influence of Hydrological Change in Transboundary River Basins (2016-2021), funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology. She was in charge of the projects of “Thresholds of Key Factors of Transboundary Water Allocation based on River Health and International Water Law” (2010-2012), of “Legal Administration of Transboundary Shared Water Resources” (2003-2005), funded by National Scientific Foundation of China (NSFC).

Professor Tian Fuqiang

Dr. Tian got his bachelor, master and PhD degrees from Tsinghua University. He visited the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States of America as a postdoc research associate from 2007-2008. Dr. Tian’s research focuses on transboundary water resources management and hydrologic forecasting under changing environment. Over all he has published over 70 peer-reviewed SCI journal papers in addition to another 80 journal papers in Chinese. Specifically, he has carried out influential studies on Lancang-Mekong River and Yarlung Tsangpo – Brahmaputra River. He has analysed geopolitical dimensions of the 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non- Navigational Uses of International Watercourses and advocates reciprocity for transboundary water resources management on journal articles and media papers. He has received an award from Ministry of Water Resources for scientific and technological achievement as first prize for his work on agricultural water management in arid area in 2016. He has also received an award from Ministry of Education for scientific and technological achievement as first prize for his work on water resources assessment and management in cold and arid areas in 2017. National Natural Science Foundation of China has named him as distinguished young scientist in 2018.

Dr. Otto Spijkers

Otto Spijkers currently is Lecturer of Public International Law at Utrecht University, Senior Research Associate with the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea (NILOS), and researcher with the Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law (UCWOSL). He is a member of the Committee on the Role of International Law in Sustainable Natural Resource Management for Development of the International Law Association, and guest lecturer for Amnesty International The Hague. He was a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta, the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden University, Xiamen University’s China International Water Law Programme (China), the China Institute for Boundary and Ocean Studies of Wuhan University (China), the Law School of the East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL) in Shanghai (China), the Università degli Studi di Salerno (Italy), and the Association pour la promotion des droits de l’homme en Afrique centrale (APDHAC) of the Université Catholique d’Afrique Centrale (Yaoundé, Cameroon). He worked as public services coordinator at the Peace Palace Library, as international consultant and coordinator for the United Nations International Law Fellowship Programme, as intern for the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and as intern for the Office of Legal Affairs of United Nations Headquarters. He may be reached at o.spijkers@uu.nl.

Dr. David Devlaeminck

After completing his PhD at Xiamen University, David J. Devlaeminck moved to Chongqing, China where he is currently Lecturer at the School of Law, Chongqing University. David's research focusses primarily on the law of international watercourses and China’s transboundary waters, but he is also broadly interested in international environmental law, water security and interdisciplinary water research. He has published in a variety of international journals, including Water Policy, Journal of Water Law, and most recently in Natural Resources Journal. He can be reached at djdevlaeminck@live.com, and more information can be found on his website at: www.davidjdevlaeminck.com.

Dr. Su Yu

Dr. Yu SU is assistant professor of international law at Xiamen University School of Law. He received his Ph.D. degree in international law from Xiamen University in 2015. He teaches public international law and international economic law. His research interests are legal framework governing Chinese transboundary waters, and communicative framework of international law. He visited Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, University of Dundee (2012-2013) on a CSC (China Scholarship Council)-funded joint PhD programme. He is a founding member of the Chinese International Water Law research group.

Professor Kong Lingjie

Dr. Kong Lingjie is a professor of public international law and the associate dean for research and international cooperation at Wuhan University China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies. He obtained doctoral degrees in law from Wuhan University and University of Paris Sud. He was academic visitor to University of Oxford, Utrecht University and some other interesting places. His research interest lies in peaceful settlement of international disputes, the law of international watercourses and the law of the sea. His has published several books and his articles appear on European Journal of International Law, Chinese Journal of International Law and some other law journals. He may be reached by konglingjie@whu.edu.cn.

Dr. Zhang Fan

Dr. Zhang Fan is a lecturer of public international law at Wuhan University China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies. She obtained a doctoral degree in law from Wuhan University, and master degrees in law from New York University and Wuhan University. She was academic visitor to University of Dundee. Her research interests include the law of international watercourses and international boundary dispute settlement. She has published several articles on some interesting topics of international water law.

Participants

Yu Xingjun, Ph. D, Consul (DG Level), Department of International Cooperation, Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources, the People’s Republic of China

Zhai Xiaojuan, Staff, Department of International Cooperation, Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources, the People’s Republic of China

Li Annan, Staff, Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People’s Republic of China

Geng Xiaohan, Staff, Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People’s Republic of China

Wang Wenling, Assistant Professor of natural resource management，Asian International Rivers Center, Yunnan University

Zhang Xin, Engineer, International Economic & Technical Cooperation and Exchange Center , Ministry of Water Resources, the People’s Republic of China

Guo Liying, PhD Candidate of Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University.

Xiong Xiaoyu, Deputy Dean of Wuhan University China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies

Zhao Yuqing, PhD Candidate of Wuhan University China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies

Wuhan University China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies

Founded in 2007, Wuhan University China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies is a multi-disciplinary research center that aims to deepen understanding of boundary and maritime matters, to facilitate peaceful resolution of boundary and maritime disputes and to enhance exchanges and cooperation across national boundaries, through research, consultancy, teaching and training activities. Its key research areas include land boundary disputes settlement and cross-border cooperation, maritime delimitation, maritime dispute resolution and maritime cooperation, governance of the polar regions and international cooperation, and application of science and technology in delimitation and management of national boundaries.