Call for Abstracts: International Conference on Freshwater Sustainable Governance and International Law at IIM Calcutta, Kolkata

The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta will host the International Conference on Freshwater Sustainable Governance and International Law from 5 to 7 October 2026 at its Joka campus in Kolkata. The conference is convened by Development of International Law in Asia (DILA), the Centre for Development and Environment (CDEP), the Centre for Management of Human Values (MCHV) and the Public Policy and Management Group (PPM).

The organisers describe freshwater as the defining geopolitical, economic and ecological issue of the 21st century, and Asia as the arena where its legal challenges are most acute. The continent holds more than half of the world's population while facing severe water scarcity, which places existing global legal frameworks on shared transboundary rivers, lakes and aquifers under strain.

From the hydro-politics of the Mekong, Indus and Brahmaputra basins to the challenges of large transboundary infrastructure, Asian states are generating distinct state practices, regional agreements and diplomatic mechanisms to govern water resources. The organisers note that these regional developments frequently intersect, and sometimes conflict, with universalist regimes such as the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention and the 1992 UN Water Convention.

The conference is framed as a forum to examine how Asian states navigate the allocation, protection and securitisation of freshwater, covering both legal contestation and fragmentation and the record of regional adaptation, institutional resilience and cooperation mechanisms. Particular emphasis is placed on the intersection of freshwater governance with sustainable development, ecosystem protection and climate resilience.

The organisers offer the following illustrative and non-exhaustive list of themes, and particularly encourage papers centring Asian state practice, regional jurisprudence and continental legal frameworks:

• Transboundary Freshwater Governance: evaluation of bilateral and regional river treaties in Asia under stress; the legal rights and obligations of upstream versus downstream states; and the international law governing shared transboundary aquifers.
• Human Rights, Displacement and Environmental Justice: codification and enforcement of the human right to water in Asian domestic and international legal contexts; and legal protection of ecosystems and of populations displaced by large-scale transboundary water infrastructure.
• Climate Change, Basin Hydrology and the SDGs: legal implications of shifting glacier melt, extreme weather and prolonged droughts on water allocation treaties; integration of climate adaptation mechanisms into rigid historical transboundary agreements; and alignment of transboundary water governance with SDG 6 and SDG 13.
• Universality versus Regionalism: legal implications of recent accessions by Asian states to global instruments such as the 1992 UN Water Convention, and how these interact with non-signatory riparians across shared river basins.
• Hydropower, Infrastructure and Investment: the regulatory interface between international water law and international economic law; investment arbitration relating to transboundary dams and water diversion projects; and the impact of foreign direct investment on basin ecosystems.

The organisers head the submission guidelines "By Invitation Only", and final participation is decided by them. The same notice, however, invites an Expression of Interest with an abstract from prospective participants, so the route in is open to anyone who writes in before the deadline. The notice does not restrict submissions by discipline, institution, career stage or nationality, and does not state how many participants will be invited.

• Send an Expression of Interest together with an abstract of approximately 300 to 400 words.
• Include a brief biographical note.
• Indicate which of the conference themes the abstract addresses.
• Submissions must reach the organisers before 21 August 2026.
• Email the Expression of Interest to waterlaw2026@iimcal.ac.in.

The notice does not state a separate full-paper deadline, a citation format or a word limit for the final paper. Those details are presumably communicated to invited participants.

Selected papers will be considered for publication in the Asian Yearbook of International Law, the Encyclopaedia of Asian State Practice in International Law, and the Journal of Human Values. The notice describes these as opportunities for selected papers, not as a guaranteed outcome of participation.

The conference notice does not mention a registration fee, and no charge is asked for sending an Expression of Interest with an abstract. It is also silent on travel grants, accommodation and any other financial support for participants. Anyone invited to present should confirm the cost of attending, and whether any support is available, directly with the organisers at waterlaw2026@iimcal.ac.in before making travel plans.

1. Choose one of the five indicative themes and prepare an abstract of about 300 to 400 words on it.
2. Add a short biographical note and state the theme the abstract addresses.
3. Email both to waterlaw2026@iimcal.ac.in before 21 August 2026.
4. Wait for the organisers to confirm; participation at Joka on 5 to 7 October 2026 follows an invitation from them.