This book is the most complete research study ever undertaken in Mexico on this important subject. Its author, Ernesto Enríquez Coyro, is not only an eminent scholar, but also an international lawyer who participated very actively in this important case. He combines the legal analysis of the jurist with the learned skills of the diplomat and contributes the expertise of an historian and researcher.
This study narrates the diplomatic, technical, and legal history of the origins and development of the Treaty on International Waters, signed by Mexico and the United States on February 3, 1944. This treaty provoked a strong controversy in the Mexican Senate which debated its constitutionality. It would appear that the misgivings of Mexican legislators concerning the treaty emerged almost twenty years later, in 1962, when the problem of the salinity of the waters of the Colorado River arose, a problem which disturbed the friendly relations between both countries for a decade and was finally resolved by a decision of the International Boundary and Water Commission.
Notwithstanding the importance of the topic, dealing with the rational utilization of the waters of three international rivers—Bravo, Colorado and Tijuana—it is unfortunate that until now very few books have been written on the subject. Based on almost 2,000 official documents concentrated in the archives on the secretariats of Foreign Affairs, Hydraulic Resources, Public Works, the senate, and the International Boundary and Water Commission between Mexico and the United States, this study constitutes a book of exceptional value.
Of the four divisions of the book, the first part contains the history of the controversy since 1853, when the Treaty of La Mesilla (Gadsden Purchase) was signed, until September 1943, when both countries initiated formal negotiations for the conclusion of the water treaty. The second part reproduces the legal study written by the author in 1939-1940, which in many respects contributed to the formulation of the Mexican diplomatic position adopted on this matter. The study further narrates the process of the formulation of the treaty and reproduces some of the most important aspects of the debates before the senates of both Mexico and the United States.
This is a well-documented study, which also contains personal opinions of one of the treaty negotiators who participated in the preparation of this important international instrument. The documents reproduced in the appendix, as well as the detailed bibliography, are helpful to the reader, be he/she diplomat, historian, or international lawyer.
