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Show con-sent and practice of states* As the problem of the economic use of rivers grows in practical importance it "becomes more and more desirable that it should be governed by legal principles sufficiently definite to afford seme practical guidance in the decision of particular cases, but the need for rules does not justify any writer.in asserting that they actually exist, until they have been enacted by the only legis- lative process which %he law of nations in its present form will recognise* With this caution in mind it is permissible to suggest a few general conclusionsQ They are based upon the evidence which practice af- fords, and it is believed that the general trend of praotice is now sufficiently clear to enable some reasonable inferences to be drawn from this evidence, but it would be.premature at present to claim thsm as positive rules which the consent of states has in- corporated into the accepted body of international law* "The first principle is that every river system is naturally an indivisible physical urdt3 and that as. such it should be so developed as to render the greatest- possible service to the whole human com-' munity which it serves, whether or not that com- munity is divided into two or more political juris- dictions. It is the positive duty of every govern- ment concerned to cooperate to the extent of its power in promoting this development,, though it can- not be called upon to imperil any vital interest or to sacrifice without full compensation and pro- visions for security any other particular interest of its own, whether political, strategic, or econ- omic," Op. cit,, pp, 104, II48, 15O-151, It is stated in Oppenheim's treatise on International Law that -- "the flow of not-national, boundary.- and international rivers is not within the abritrary power of one. of the riparian States, for it is a rule of International Law that no State is allowed to alter the natural con- ditions of its own territory'to the disadvantage of the natural conditions of the territory of a neighbouring State. For this reason a State is not only forbidden to stop or to divert the flow of a river which runs from its own to a neighbouring State, but likewise to make such use of the water of the river as either causes danger to the neighbouring State or prevents it from making proper use of.the flow of the river on its partv" I Oppenheim's International Law (5th ed., by Lauterpacht., 1937) 370-371. Green E* Hackworth |