The Seminar on "Water and Law – Global, Regional and Local Responses", which is organized by the Legal and Judicial Training Centre and integrated as part of the 2nd EU-Macao Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field, will hold on October 24th – 28th (Monday – Friday), at 5:00 p.m – 7:00 p.m. in the Multi-function Room of the Law Reform and International Law Bureau located on Alameda Dr. Carlos D' Assumpção, n. ° 398, CNAC building, 6th floor. The Seminar will be conducted in English, with simultaneous translation into Cantonese and Portuguese, will feature as its keynote speakers Professor Paulo Jorge Tavares Canelas de Castro, Associate Professor of Faculty of Law, University of Macao and Professor Joana Mendes, Assistant Professor at the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance, University of Amsterdam. The following topics will be discussed: 1.Introductory remarks: Current issues of water law A.Water quantities and water diversions
B.Water quality and the environmental problem
C.Water and climate change
D.Water as an economic good: costs recovery; economic analysis and economic incentives; liberalisation of water transfers; privatization of water services
E.Water as a human right
F.Procedural obligations
G.Implementation, enforcement and dispute settlement methods 2.Legal background and factors of change: The old and current paradigms of water law 3.The new global response A.United Nations Convention on the Law of International Watercourses
B.'Soft Law' instruments
C.The rulings of the International Court of Justice 4.The new regional responses A.International law UNECE (the Espoo and Helsinki Conventions)
SADC (the 1995 and 2000 Protocols) B.European law: the particular case of the European Union a.The EU Water Framework Directive: shifting paradigm in law The evolution of EU water law
The fundamental concepts of the Water Framework Directive
The instruments of the Water Framework Directive b.The Common Implementation Strategy: shifting paradigm in implementation Old paradigm of implementation
A new mode of governance c.Expansion of the EU model? The interrelationship between EU water law, the Convention on the Protection of the Rhine, the Danube River Protection Convention, the Luso-Spanish Convention 5.The new local responses: the case of Portugal A.Problems of transposition of the Water Framework Directive
B.Main instruments of the Law 58/2005, of 29th December 6.Conclusion: Towards a fundamental paradigm-shift in contemporary water law? The 2nd EU-Macao Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field, which incorporates this seminar, has as its main objective the "Consolidation of the Macao Legal System" and will take place until December 2012. The execution of this Programme is organised by the Law Reform and International Law Bureau (DSRJDI), with the participation of several other MSAR's entities and public departments, namely, the Legal and Judicial Training Centre (CFJJ), the Legal Affairs Bureau (DSAJ), the Economic Services (DSE), the Financial Services Bureau (DSF) and the Institute of European Studies of Macao (IEEM).
