Stephen C. McCaffrey
BA, JD, Dr. iur
Distinguished Advisor

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Based in California, USA
Fluent in English
Working proficiency in German

Professor Stephen C. McCaffrey is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on international water law and a key figure in the development of the field. He is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California, USA, having previously served as the Carol Olson Endowed Professor of International Law (2018-2024). He holds a  BA in History from the University of Colorado, a JD from UC Berkeley and a doctorate (Dr. iur.) from the University of Cologne, in Germany. 
 
Professor McCaffrey was the 2017 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate for his “unparalleled contribution to the evolution and progressive realization of international water law.” The following year he was awarded the Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy. In 2020 he received the Louis B. Sohn Award for Public International Law.
 
Professor McCaffrey served as a member of the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) (1982-1991), including serving as the Chair of the ILC for its Thirty-Ninth Session (1987-1988). He was the special rapporteur for the Commission's work on the law of the non-navigational uses of international watercourses (1985-1991). The Commission’s draft articles on the subject formed the basis for the 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (the UN Watercourses Convention). This Convention codified the existing norms of customary international water law, and is one of the central global agreements and normative frameworks on the subject.
 
Professor McCaffrey was Counselor on International Law in the U.S. State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser (1984-85). He was a member of the Implementation Committee of the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UNECE Water Convention) (2012-24). Professor McCaffrey is a former member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)’s Specialized Panel of Arbitrators established pursuant to the Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes relating to Natural Resources and/or the Environment, nominated by the United States in 2001. Professor McCaffrey has served as Special Legal Adviser to the Secretariat of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation of the environmental side-agreement to NAFTA. He was a member of the experts’ group on environmental law for the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission). He has advised Palestine on water issues in the context of permanent status negotiations with Israel. He was the legal consultant to the Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework project, which resulted in the Cooperative Framework Agreement between Nile Basin States. He has consulted for States and international organizations in different regions of the world, including Africa, Asia, South America and Central America. 
 
His experience includes acting as counsel to States in a number of cases concerning international water law, including before the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration:
 

• Counsel to Slovakia in the case concerning the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary/Slovakia), International Court of Justice (1997)

 

• Counsel to India, Proceedings before Neutral Expert under the Indus Waters Treaty 1960, Difference regarding the Baglihar Hydro-electric Plant (2007)

 

• Counsel to Nicaragua in the case concerning the Dispute Regarding Navigational and Related Rights (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua), International Court of Justice (2009)

 

• Counsel to Uruguay in the case concerning Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v. Uruguay), International Court of Justice (2010)

 

• Counsel to India, Indus Waters Kishenganga Arbitration (Pakistan v. India), Permanent Court of Arbitration (2013)

 

• Counsel to Nicaragua, Certain Activities Carried Out by Nicaragua in the Border Area (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua), International Court of Justice (2015)

 

• Counsel to Nicaragua, Case concerning Construction of a Road in Costa Rica Along the San Juan River (Nicaragua v. Costa Rica), International Court of Justice (2015)

 

• Counsel to Chile, Dispute over the Status and Use of the Waters of the Silala (Chile v. Bolivia), International Court of Justice (2022)

 
Professor McCaffrey has published widely. His areas of practice and publication include public international law, international environmental law, international water law, transnational litigation and human rights law. He is the author of one of the leading treatises in the field, The Law of International Watercourses from Oxford University Press, as well as numerous other works that continue to inform international legal practice, adjudication, and policy. For instance, his early writing pioneered the concept of the human right to water, which in 2010 was recognized by the UN General Assembly. He was the Series Editor for Brill Nijhoff’s International Water Law Series. 
 
Professor McCaffrey’s work is foundational to the modern understanding of international water law and to the sustainable and peaceful management of shared waters. Through his ongoing practice, scholarship, and teaching he continues to shape the field, as a seminal voice. He currently is a Distinguished Advisor for the International Waters Governance Research Initiative (IWGRI).