River Rights – Framing, Recognition and Beyond

Cullet, Philippe

Abstract

This chapter starts by engaging with the conceptual framing of river rights. It highlights some of the potential that the river rights discourse offers as an alternative to the dominant paradigm of sustainable development. A river rights framing provides a basis to question the primacy that sustainable development effectively gives to economic development and its anthropocentric understanding of nature. Other elements considered include the potential of a river rights framing for rethinking the top-down nature of environmental protection, for moving away from the property rights focus that has been the highlight of water law, and for giving more attention to people’s concerns in addition to the support that natural sciences offer to environmental protection. The next section examines the evolving river rights jurisprudence, focusing on the two decisions of the Uttarakhand High Court concerning Ganga and Yamuna. The last section then offers some pointers towards rethinking river rights. This includes framing river rights within a context of equity, engaging with the balance of rights and obligations, and considering potential modes of representation. It concludes by suggesting that river rights should be conceived as rights that bring together the anthropo- and eco-centric dimensions of protection through a framing as eco-human rights.

Citation

Cullet, P. (in press). River Rights – Framing, Recognition and Beyond. In River Rejuvenation and River Rights: Evolving Debates in India. Routledge

• Deposit Date: Jul 18, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: River Rejuvenation and River Rights: Evolving Debates in India
• Contract Date: Jun 17, 2025