LAUSR

Science plays a significant role in policy decisions related to the management and protection of water resources, at both national and transboundary levels. Legal frameworks provide analytical tools to develop the linkages between science and policy and to implement science-based policies and decisions. Law and policy play prominent roles in the integration of scientific knowledge within society. However, the interrelation between law, science and policy is complex and multifaceted and pulls in two directions: importing law into science and policy while exporting science’s approaches and methods to law and policy. This volume of Water International represents the third special issue prepared by the International Association for Water Law (known as AIDA from its Spanish acronym; https://www.aida-waterlaw.org). AIDA is a network of legal and policy specialists active in government, academia and civil society who have a specific interest in freshwater resources law and related disciplines. It partners with a variety of inter-governmental, governmental and non-governmental institutions to ensure that water law is properly integrated in the governance of freshwater throughout the world. Consistent with the two previous AIDA special issues (37:6, 2012, and 41:6, 2016), this volume gathers selected papers dealing with law and governance presented at the IWRA’s 16th World Water Congress, held in Cancun in 2017. AIDA has played an active role as a contributor to the development of this congress by leading the delivery of the water law and governance track running through the programme, soliciting presentations from high-level legal experts, and organizing a special session on the Greening of Water Law. AIDA volunteered to have the present guest editors review the diverse submissions and identify those legal papers that were of particular significance for this special issue. The articles selected and published in this volume deal with legal aspects of water management addressing the conference theme of ‘Bridging Science and Policy’. They outline the role of law in water management and suggest solutions to make laws flexible and adaptive to changes in scientific knowledge and environmental, social and economic conditions. Each contribution addresses the topic with a different focus and offers an in-depth analysis of legal challenges related to the creation of interdisciplinary