International law concerning maritime boundary dispute resolution reflects normative aspirations for peacefully managing some of the most intractable challenges in foreign affairs. Focusing on key international law issues relating to maritime boundary disputes, this book explores how international law and legal institutions facilitate these goals theoretically and practically. This process includes a balance of equities among states grounded in the Charter of the United Nations and the protection of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of Member States, while avoiding threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression. The UN Charter is complemented by the rules in customary law and UNCLOS for evaluating maritime claims and addressing disputes, including conciliation, litigation, and arbitration. Despite the comprehensive nature of these procedures, numerous maritime disputes persist, including those in the East China Sea and South China Sea. As the disputes continue, however, general international law and the UNCLOS framework captures additional norms and rules that may act to reduce tension and manage disputes. As States shift closer to or farther from compliance on maritime claims and delimitation, the rules of behavior that pertain to flag States and coastal States may help to maintain the peace. This volume offers a distributed study in the factors affecting maritime disputes, international law frameworks and diplomatic models for addressing them, and legal, security, and historical dynamics in East Asia. The book goes beyond the existing debate to offer suitable methods for managing contemporary disputes and makes a meaningful impact on thinking about regional maritime security and international maritime law.

The ways and means described in this book constitute a road map for responsible members of the international community to work together, reduce tensions, resolve differences over maritime boundaries peacefully, and reap the rewards of a safer, stabler, and more prosperous world. This volume shows that the UN and its associated treaties, courts, and other institutions have developed a body of laws, rules, and procedures guiding the way to negotiated, peaceful outcomes. Mr. Baroudi’s book also points to rapid advances of science and technology that take much of the guesswork out of boundary delineation, making this route more reliable and user-friendly than ever before. The successful use of these mechanisms would set a useful example for the resolution of boundary disputes in other regions of the world. That, in turn would restore confidence in the international rules-based system and could pave the way for the settling of some of the world’s most troubling and dangerous disputes.

In the twenty-first century, the Indo-Pacific, which spans from the western Pacific Ocean to the western Indian Ocean along the eastern coast of Africa, has emerged as a crucial geostrategic region for trade, investment, energy supplies, cooperation, and competition. It presents complex maritime security challenges and interlocking economic interests that require the development of an overarching multilateral security framework. This volume develops common approaches by focusing on geopolitical challenges, transnational security concerns, and multilateral institution-building and cooperation. The chapters, written by a cross-section of practitioners, diplomats, policymakers, and scholars from the three major powers discussed (United States, China, India) explain the opportunities and risks in the Indo-Pacific region and identify specific naval measures needed to enhance maritime security in the region. Maritime Security in the Indo-Pacific opens by introducing the Indo-Pacific and outlining the roles of China, India, and the United States in various maritime issues in the region. It then focuses on the security challenges presented by maritime disputes, naval engagement, legal issues, sea lanes of communication, energy transport, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, as well as by nontraditional threats, such as piracy, terrorism, and weapons proliferation. It compares and contrasts the roles and perspectives of the key maritime powers, analyzing the need for multilateral cooperation to overcome the traditional and nontraditional challenges and security dilemma. This shows that, in spite of their different interests, capabilities, and priorities, Washington, Beijing and New Delhi can and do engage in cooperation to deal with transnational security challenges. Lastly, the book describes how to promote maritime cooperation by establishing or strengthening multilateral mechanisms and measures that would reduce the prospects for conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.

Combining practical and theoretical approaches, this book addresses the political, legal and economic implications of maritime disputes in East Asia. The maritime disputes in East Asia have multiplied over the past few years, in parallel with the economic growth of the countries in the region, the rise of nationalist movements, fears and sometimes fantasies regarding the emergence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a global power, increasing military expenses, as well as speculations regarding the potential resources in various disputed islands. These disputes, however, are not new and some have been the subject of contention and the cause of friction for decades, if not centuries in a few cases. Offering a robust analysis, this volume explores disputes through the different lenses of political science, international law, history and geography, and introduces new approaches in particular to the four important disputes concerning Dokdo/Takeshima, Senkaku/Diaoyu, Paracels and Spratlys. Utilising a comparative approach, this book identifies transnational trends that occur in the different cases and, therefore, at the regional level, and aims to understand whether the resurgence of maritime disputes in East Asia may be studied on a case by case basis, or should be analysed as a regional phenomenon with common characteristics. This book will be of interest to students of Asian Politics, Maritime Security, International Security, Geopolitics and International Relations in general.

The delimitation of maritime zones is an important requirement for peaceful relations between neighbouring States. There are numerous examples of areas between States with opposite or adjacent coasts where sovereignty over an island or territory may not be contested but the delimitation of the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone is still pending. Under the Law of the Sea Convention, the delimitation of these zones shall be effected by agreement on the basis of international law. However, the Convention does not offer a definitive answer as to the methods that should be applied. This publication includes contributions by Judges of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, eminent scholars and experienced practitioners. The papers deal with various aspects of maritime delimitation: the jurisprudence of international courts and tribunals and their relevance for delimitation, the impact of the Law of the Sea Convention, the role of legal practitioners and diplomatic negotiators, and delimitation under particular geological circumstances and in geographically complex regional situations. It is designed to provide insight and guidance to the complicated process of maritime delimitation.

Today's hearing will cover China's maritime disputes in the East and South China Seas. We'll examine the security, political, legal, and economic drivers of these disputes in our three panels today. The first panel will begin by discussing the broad security situation on the high seas. As China's maritime forces have become more capable over the past decade, Beijing has become more confident in its ability to assert its claims in the disputed areas. Beyond China's "hard" security concerns, however, other domestic, political, and legal elements shape China's policy in the East and South China Seas. Our second panel will consider popular nationalism as one of these elements. It has become a key driver of Chinese foreign policy as personality politics in Beijing has given way to a collective leadership seeking Party legitimacy. We'll conclude with a panel on how resources and economic drivers shape China's maritime disputes. Security of China's near seas is critical to the unimpeded flow of trade and imported energy resources. Though the natural resources in the East and South China Sea undoubtedly shape the security landscape, there appears to be a debate on the centrality of oil and gas resources to the dispute.