Although there is considerable research on participation, there is little that combines the relationship between access to information, participation and access to justice and how these can be combined to enhance groundwater governance. Hence, this article addresses the question: How can legal frameworks that recognize the right to participation alleviate local groundwater governance problems in different contexts? In order to address this question, this article reviews the literature on participation, law, policy and inclusive development and analyses selected legal frameworks that recognize participation, access to information and access to justice to determine how these frameworks have been implemented in groundwater governance. The selected contexts include Australia and Costa Rica. The findings show that (i) access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice are mostly employed in a reactive manner to solve groundwater governance problems; (ii) access to information on groundwater ignores particular features of groundwater resources, such as ‘invisibility’, ‘irreversibility’ especially in relation to fossil resources, the local nature, and limited consensus on the data; (iii) meaningful participation is unlikely until information, learning, knowledge, and awareness about groundwater resources is popularized and (iv) factors enhancing access to information and participation in decision-making in groundwater governance include the existence of a water crisis, leadership, government funding dedicated to organize participatory processes; and small-scale and homogenous communities.

Integrated coastal management (ICM) has been considered worldwide to be a suitable approach to realizing comprehensive schemes to protect or develop coastal regions. A complex regulatory system stretching from international to local levels provides a framework for ICM practices. This raises the question whether and to what extent ICM practices have been supported by legal and policy frameworks at the international and national levels in different settings in both developed and developing countries. This paper examines four case studies in Germany, Costa Rica, Mexico and South Africa. Two research methods were used. First, a document-based analysis was conducted in two parts: a literature review of the content of ICM, and a policy and law analysis of the jurisdictions of the four case studies and at the international level (i.e., treaties and declarations). Second, a qualitative analysis was conducted based on in-depth interviews involving 21 decision-makers representing all the case studies. With a view to enhance the effective use of international and national legal and policy instruments and their implementation in a more local site specific context, this study considers four principles currently guiding ICM practices: (i) incorporation of international instruments’ principles in national legal and policy frameworks, (ii) participation, (iii) sustainable development and (iv) monitoring. An I-P-S ((I) incorporation of international instruments’ principles in national frameworks, (P) participation (S) sustainable development) diagram is used for an integrative assessment of ICM and indicates directions for further improvements at the case study sites. The embeddedness of ICM into national legal and policy frameworks is a success factor for ICM, however, it is often limited due to a lack of implementation. Furthermore, ICM can easily be jeopardized if ICM is allocated a marginalized position.

The Anthropocene is an era in which humans have become the primary driver of planetary systems, not least the global hydrological cycle. This is posing significant challenges for managing the globe's water resources, and is catalyzing a shift in the focus of water law, governance and policy research. One important feature of this shift is a burgeoning focus on groundwater resources and their exploitation, particularly in developing countries. As surface water succumbs to climate pressures, groundwater use has increased rapidly as a source of food production and economic development. A fundamental question for modern water law and governance research is: what are the key challenges and opportunities for effective design and implementation of groundwater law to achieve sustainable and inclusive development. This article provides insights into this question through an empirical examination of Costa Rica. Drawing on an empirical analysis of 40 semi-structured interviews with public and private stakeholders in Costa Rica, the findings identify the following challenges and opportunities for groundwater governance: (i) recognition of water as a public good and clear ownership; (ii) insufficient definition of groundwater and embedding within the concepts of sustainable and inclusive development and participation; (iii) inadequate organization and toolbox, including implementation.

This article examines human rights from the perspective of social constructions and as the result of historical processes. This means that human rights, as we know them today, are the result of dynamic and historical struggles. This is no different with regard to the human right to water. In particular, this article addresses the following research question: how interwoven are social movements with the realisation of the human right to water? While answering this question the article brings to the discussion some relations between the human right to water and the idea of sustainable development. This article focuses on Costa Rica because it is a country that has long been celebrated as a leader in sustainable development, environmental policy, and protection of natural resources. Recently, however, Costa Rica became the world's number one exporter of pineapple. The shocking growth of pineapple plantations in recent years has caused innumerable socio-environmental problems including that of water pollution. The article concludes that demanding the realisation of the human right to water through social struggles, and especially through social organisation and pressuring the government, is the way forward to accomplish this right and the ultimate goal of sustainable development.

Groundwater governance tends to be concerned with problems of over-extraction and pollution. Groundwater excess, which is increasingly becoming a problem in many places around the world, has largely been ignored. This article discusses groundwater excess and particularly the governance approach for engaging with groundwater excess. By discussing a case study in the Netherlands, we argue that groundwater excess has a varied impact on different actors. This varied impact and the fact that the legal framework largely ignores groundwater excess presents a significant challenge for governing groundwater resources.

Current groundwater challenges have made evident that national and international groundwater law needs a thorough revision. In this article, we explore earth system law (ESL) and rights of nature (RoN) as possible approaches to rethink groundwater law. Taking inspiration from ESL scholarship, RoN literature, Indigenous worldviews, and socio‐ecological movements, we analyze law as a critical element of the human‐political‐social system, which creates regulatory institutions with the aim to provide a social order for humanity, an order that is being affected by deteriorating earth systems, including groundwater. Recognizing RoN and thinking law through the lenses of ESL involve a new understanding of what groundwater law could be and what the subject of the law could be. So far, little attention has been given to how these approaches can be used to redesign groundwater law, and what implications this could have on groundwater governance and sustainability. Therefore, this article explores the possibility of reforming groundwater law through the lenses of ESL and RoN. It investigates which legal mechanisms are being used to recognize RoN, and what their legal and practical implications have been so far. This article aims to contribute not only to advancing the academic debate on RoN and ESL but also to share light on different ways to reform groundwater law, which includes a new understanding of sustainability and socio‐nature relations.This article is categorized under: Human Water > Rights to Water Human Water > Water Governance Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change