OCR Text |
Show international custom. A few of these treaties are discussed below . 1. United States-Nexico: Upper '-io Grande, 1906- . In 189^ and 1895 the Mexican Minister protested to the Secretary of State against continued diversion of water from the Rio Grande in the United States in increasing amounts to the detriment of kexican communities. He contended that international law formed a sufficient basis for the rights of Kexican inhabitants with regard to their prior uses. In a message to Congress on December 3, 1894, President Cleveland declared that the problem of the use of the Rio Grande for irrigation should be solved by appropriate concurrent action of the United States and Mexico. Immediately after Attorney General Harmon submitted his opinion of December 1895 • the Secretary of State and the Kexican Kinister entered into correspondence and soon instructed the American and foexican Coionis-sioners on the International Boundary Commission, established under a treaty of 1889, to investigate and report on the Rio Grande situation. In a joint report submitted in November,1896, the Commissioners declared that the only feasible method of regulating the use of the waters so as to secure to each country and its inhabitants their legal and equitable rights was to build a dam across the Rio Grande at El Paso. The Commissioners Vvreport stated that Mexico had been wrongfully deprived for many years of its equitable rights and they recommended the matter be settled by a treaty dividing the use of the waters equally, Mexico to waive all, claims for indemnity for the past unlawful use of water. The Kexican Kinister informed the Secretary of State in December I896 that Mexico was prepared to enter into a treaty as recommended by the International 1. Limitations of time and space make it impossible to discuss all these treaties, and some of those discussed here do not appear in existing collections. Smith, K.A., The Economic Uses of International Rivers' (1931) abstracts or summarizes 51 treaties from 1785 to 1930; the author is emeritus professor of international law at the University of London. Sevette, Pierre, "Legal Aspects of Hydro-Electric Development of divers and Lakes of Common Interest (1952), U.N. Doc. s/ECE/136, summarizes some of the treaties collected by Smith and adds about 40 others; the author is Chief of the Power Section, Power and Steel Division of the Economic Commission for Europe. These two works will hereafter be cited as 'Smith and ECE Report , respectively. Kiddle Eastern treaties on this subject are discussed in Hirsch, A.!.'., Utilization of International Rivers in the kiddle East , 50 Am. J. Int. Law 81 (1956). Eerber, Die Rechtsquellen des Inter-nationaleu Wassemutzungrechts', pp. 39-9*+, (hunich, 1955) also contains an extensive summary of treaties on this subject. 2. This and the following summary of United States-Kexico treaties is in part based upon Simsarian, The Diversion of Waters effecting the United States and Kexico , 17 Tex. L. Rev. 27 (1938). 3. See above, p. 13, |
Source |
Original book: [State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, California, City of San Diego, California, and County of San Diego, California, defendants, United States of America, State of Nevada, State of New Mexico, State of Utah, interveners] : |