Dellapenna and Gupta on the evolution of water law

Joseph Dellapenna and Joyeeta Gupta have posted to SSRN "The Evolution of Water Law Through 4,000 Years", a chapter from the forthcoming Sovereignty and the Development of International Water Law. The abstract explains:

This chapter presents an overview of global trends in water law through history. It begins with a brief examination of the idea of "law," and follows with a description of the earliest recorded forms of water law. Water law through the centuries has conformed to a limited set of patterns, in part as a response to the characteristics of the resource and in part because of the migration of water law systems from society to society and continent to continent. The chapter then summarily traces the evolution and characteristics of national, supranational, and international water law, how they are related, and where they might be headed. This provides a grounding for other chapters focusing on particular aspects of the history of sovereignty and water law.