АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ВОПРОСЫ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОГО ПРАВА INTERNATIONAL LEGAL COOPERATION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF THE TRANSBOUNDARY RIVERS: ZAMBEZI RIVER CASE A.M. Solntsev, Target Shumba The Department of International Law Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia 6, Miklukho-Maklaya st., Moscow, Russia, 117198 Transboundary watercourses constitute an important reservoir providing perhaps the most critical natural resource essential to support life all over the world. <...> The article is focused on the international legal regulation of the Zambezi River as one of the most significant international watercourse. <...> Being the forth longest river in Africa, the Zambezi is shared by eight Southern African States and evaluates a quarter of a century of close cooperation in order to realize the Southern African Development Community (SADC) founding principles. <...> Key words: international law, international environmental law, transboundary rivers, riparian states, sustainable management, Zambezi river, SADC. <...> River courses as the most easily accessible sources of water flow through national boundaries of many countries. <...> Such legally binding instruments as bilateral and multilateral treaties [14] are signed to ensure the harmonious and equitable exploitation of these river basins. <...> While some researchers assert that a lot has been done in international rivers` regulation, others consider the international law to be inadequate in defending the equal use of shared water sources in certain parts of the world. <...> Water has been a cause of political tensions and occasional fire exchanges between Arabs and Israelis, Indians and Pakistanis, and Americans and Mexicans and among all ten riparian Nile River States. <...> Water is one of the few scarce resources without substitutes, which is in constant and immediate need. <...> There are many examples of withinnations internal water conflicts, ranging from inter-State violence and death along the Cauvery River in India to the United States, where California farmers blew up a pipeline meant for Los Angeles to intertribal bloodshed between Maasai herdsmen and Solntsev A.M., Shumba Target International legal cooperation… 229 Kikuyu farmers in Kenya. <...> The discourse surrounding the issue of transboundary watercourses is complicated by hydro-political and social aspects intertwined therewith: nineteen basins are shared by 5 or more riparian countries; the Danube has 17 riparian nations; the Congo, Niger, Nile <...>