ABSTRACT Water is unquestionably one of the most important of all the resources that humans depend upon for their survival and thriving, yet it is a resource under increasing stress because of the growth of human populations and changing patterns of use by those populations . Water covers about three-fourths of the earth's surface. Still, over one billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, a problem that many governments across the globe seem unable to redress. Hydrologists expect the demand for water will continue to increase with the world's growing population. As a result, some have predicted that by the year 2025, as many as 3.5 billion people will be living in water stressed or water scarce countries, compared to 500 million people in 2002. Practical solutions are thus implemented, to overcome water scarcity, being water transfers one of them. Water scarcity is also exacerbated as peoples' lifestyles become more industrialized and thus more consumptive on a per capita basis. Consequently, fears of water wars time and again voiced in many parts of the world. For this reason, fresh water is a highly topical issue which touches on human rights, international economic law, social, and cultural and environmental resource issues. Consequently, fresh water resources are at the same time ecological, economic, social, and cultural goods and must be managed accordingly. However, efforts to manage these resources are complicated by tensions arising from possible clashes between the regimes favoring privatization, trade and investment liberalization, and domestic and international regimes governing water resources, environmental protection and human rights. The relationships between the international economic and legal framework on the one hand and fresh water resource management and protection on the other are complex and multifaceted. The main objective of this Thesis is to focus primarily on law, but also includes perspectives from economics and other disciplines. I wish to analyze such questions as whether governments are free to decide or not to export water resources, or whether rules on the liberalization of water services affect domestic and international human rights obligations relating to water supply. More generally, how do the procedural rights of states, individuals, affected communities and investors affect decisions regarding the right to drinking water, the rights of investors to exploit water resources, and the rights of governments to protect their lakes, rivers and groundwater? The feasibility and practicability of a water export business and its various impacts will be put in perspective, because if such exports are (apparently) attractive from a business point of view, it is unlikely that such exports will ever take place if they do not meet certain previous and crucial conditions such as the willingness of the states involved.