THE REASON WHY ETHIOPIA’S FIRST FILLING OF THE GRAND ETHIOPIAN RENAISSANCE DAM (GERD) VIOLATED THE EQUITABLE AND REASONABLE UTILIZATION PRINCIPLE AND TWO LESSONS FROM THE MEKONG AND INDUS RIVER BASINS Daniel Teshome Teklu* Submitted to the Faculty of Robert H. McKinney School of Law in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International & Comparative Law Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis January 2021 * Daniel Teshome Teklu, B.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of Cincinnati’12, J.D., Wayne State University Law School’19. I can be reached at
[email protected] i © 2021 Daniel Teshome Teklu ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii DEDICATION I dedicate this master’s thesis to my mother Aynalem Ashebir (Ayni) and my father Dr. Teshome Teklu (Ababi), both of whom vehemently disagree with my conclusions. From beginning to end, they never tired of pointing out that equitable and reasonable utilization is neither equitable nor reasonable. I thank them for that and, of course, everything else. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank my thesis advisor Professor Dr. Frank Emmert for taking time out of his busy schedule to supervise and direct my efforts in researching this thesis. His instruction on conducting legal research in a methodical and ordered way, a system he developed called Mind Mapping, though tedious at first was very helpful in the end. His encouragement of what was done well combined with his merciless criticism of what was not done so well made writing and rewriting this thesis over the course of two semesters both a pleasure and a pain, the former in greater measure than the latter.