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This path-breaking book focuses on the law and legal doctrine within the wider policy context of water resources and analyses the concept of sustainability. To achieve the sustainable use and development of water resources is a daunting challenge for both global and local communities. It requires commitments from all groups within international, national and local communities from their own particular, possibly conflicting, perspectives. Without a set of coherent legal arrangements designed to ensure effective governance of water resources, their sustainable use and development is unlikely to be achieved. Douglas Fisher considers how legal arrangements for managing water resources have evolved across the continents over hundreds of years. He explores their relevance for contemporary society; how the norms of current international and national legal regimes are responding; and, most importantly, how legal rights and duties should be structured so as to achieve sustainability in the future. This detailed textual and linguistic analysis of legal doctrines and instruments in relation to water resources will be invaluable for international and national water resources policy analysts, water resource managers and water resource lawyers. Students of water resource management, sustainable development and sustainability will also find this book of great interest to them.