This note contains a summary, for practitioners, of the World Bank Law, Justice, and Development Series Book Regulatory Frameworks for Water Resources Management: a comparative study (2006). It examines how the regulatory frameworks in 16 jurisdictions worldwide have addressed the various basic issues related to water resources management, provides a comparative analysis of those issues, and highlights the essential elements of the regulatory frameworks that are emerging in response. Most countries have laws or regulations (and in fewer cases constitutional clauses) relating to ownership, management, and allocation of water. These provisions are often, however, out of date, over complex, lacking in clarity, or fragmented. For the comparative analysis, regulatory frameworks for water resources management were selected from 16 jurisdictions: Armenia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, European Union (EU), France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Senegal, South Africa, Vietnam, and the Republic of Yemen.