Providing an overview of the various legal responses to conflicts involving the use of water resources, this text analyzes the continuous development of water law in the face of new threats of water shortages. The book is a result of the conference "Scarcity of Water, International, European and National Legal Aspects" held at the faculty of Law of the Erasmus University, Rotterdam in October 1995. It contains a selection papers presented at the conference and several additional contributions on the issues of water law and policy.

This title focuses on liability for damage to those natural resources that are of interest to the public and are protected by national, European or international law. It provides an overview of the law of the United States and of certain EU member states on the recovery of damages for injury to natural resources. The international civil liability conventions that cover environmental harm and the recently published European Commission's White Paper on environmental liability are also discussed. The on-going development in various international forums of treaties or protocols dealing with liability for environmental damage are analyzed, as are the principles developed by the UNEP Working Group established in response to the 1990 Gulf War to advise the UNCC on claims for damage to natural resources.;The book addresses assessment and valuation issues, the issue of standing in cases of injury to (un)owned natural resources, and the determination of ways to repair, restore and compensate for natural resource injuries and the associated loss of ecological and human services. It also explains why such a difference exists between the US and most European jurisdictions and inter-national liability conventions as to the recovery of damages for injury to natural resources.