The River Basin in History and Law

I. Introduction.- II. The Physical Unity of the River Basin.- III. The River Basin as the Basis of Water Control for Agriculture in Antiquity.- IV. Navigation and the Basin.- A. The influence of waterways on the political unification of river basins.- 1. Fluvial civilizations.- 2. Forest lands of northern Eurasia and North America.- a. Poland and the Oder River basin.- b. Russia in Europe and Asia.- c. France in North America, and the St. Lawrence basin.- B. The politically divided basin — a unit for navigation.- 1. Antiquity.- a. The Tigris-Euphrates basin.- b. The Nile basin.- c. European rivers.- 2. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the 17th century.- a. Legal bases for the use of rivers.- 3. The basin-wide extent of freedom of navigation from the 17th century to the era of multipurpose basin-wide development.- C. Influence of waterways on the commercial unification of river basins.- 1. The Vistula basin.- 2. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin.- 3. The Mississippi basin.- D. Inter-basin links and basin unity.- V. Non-Navigational Uses and the Application of Water Law to the Basin.- A. Medieval background.- B. Eighteenth-century England.- C. Growth of modern industrialization and water use.- D. Changes in water law since the Industrial Revolution.- 1. Administrative disposition in continental Europe.- 2. The administrative system in the United States and Great Britain.- E. Effect of increased water use on politically divided river basins.- VI. Multipurpose Uses and Basin-Wide Development.- A. The river basin as a unit of national planning and administration.- 1. Basin authorities.- a. A link with the past — from the Commissioners of Sewers to the British River Boards.- b. Basin associations in the Ruhr.- c. Basin authorities in the 1930’s.- i. The Tennessee Valley Authority.- ii. The Compagnie Nationale du Rhône.- d. Basin authorities after TVA — plans and projects in the United States.- e. Basin authorities after TVA — outside the United States.- i. India — the Damodar Valley Corporation.- ii. Ceylon — the Gal Oya Development Board.- iii. Brazil-the Commissão do Valedo São Francisco.- iv. Colombia — Corporación Autonoma Regional del Cauca.- v. Ghana — the Volta River Authority.- vi. Australia — the Snowy Mountains Authority.- 2. Coordinating basin commissions and committees.- 3. Development of non-water resources.- B. The international river basin.- 1. Planning.- a. Bilateral treaties.- i. Rivers of the United States — Mexican border.- ii. The Nile.- iii. The Indus.- iv. The Columbia.- b. Multilateral treaties.- i. The Mekong.- ii. The Uruguay.- iii. The Niger River, the Senegal River, and Lake Chad.- 2. Administration.- C. Other areas as units for the development of water resources.- VII. Bringing the Legal Unity of the River Basin Into Focus.- Index of rivers and river basins.- General index.