The threat of water scarcity touches human populations and ecosystems worldwide. This work overviews the various legal responses to conflicts involving water as a resource. It addresses the continuous development of water law in the face of new water shortage scares. The distinguished team of contributors analyses the nature of the problem, international water law, legal and policy responses to water scarcity in selected regions, and the emergence of a new body of economic water law. Contributing experts in the field of water law and policy reveal the diverse and dynamic development of water law and the interaction between the legal and policy responses at the international, regional, and national levels. 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, this book also contains a selection of papers presented at the conference.