Home / Vol.12, n°2 / La construction sociale du statut juridique de l'eau en Amérique du Nord

This article looks at the way the legal status of water is constructed in North America. Canada, the United States and Mexico are economically integrated through the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but there are major differences among them in terms of water resources, capture and consumption, as well as in terms of the dominant approaches to the legal status of water. In the regional economic space, water leads to major debate. Indeed, differences in hydrological resources among the member countries inspire envy and accentuate disputes over shared resources. Special attention is paid to the discourses of the various social actors who essentially target, on one hand, the exclusion of water from any trade agreement and its protection for future generations, and, on the other hand, the definition of water as a product that can be the object of commercial transactions in the framework of the free trade agreement.

[*] Doctorante en droit, Faculté de droit, Université de Montréal. Courriel : yenny.vega.cardenas@umontreal.ca