A. Legal Perspective
1. Customary International Law:
a. What are these:
· Freedoms of the sea.
· Cooperation between states.
· Peaceful settlement of disputes.
2. International Conventions or Treaties:
a. UNCLOS 1982
b. Bilateral and regional agreements/arrangements
c. UN Charter
d. Other relevant international conventions.
Freedoms of the sea, resources use, and the use of the space, such as by shipping, have now been highly regulated particularly by UNCLOS 1982 and by other international conventions such as IMO, ICAO, UNESCO, etc.
B. What are the “disputes” in the South China Sea?
1. Claims to the sea? As China seems to imply? Needs for clarifications, limits, coordinates of the area claimed. Slowly, it appears that what China claims sovereignty is over the features in the 9 dotted lines, not sovereignty over the sea itself. The “U-Shape” lines appear to be “allocation” line, not territorial line.
2. Claims to the “features”(islands, rocks, reefs, low tide elevations, banks, atoll, etc.)?
3. The rights to maritime zones of the “features” (internal waters, archipelagic waters, territorial seas, contiguous zones, Exclusive Economic Zones, Continental Shelf/margin).
4. The nature of the claims: Territorial sovereignty, sovereign rights, jurisdictions, interests.
5. “Historic claims”, what are these and how long should it become historic?
6. Is Chinese Taipei/Taiwan a “party” to the “dispute”? Can an “entity” be a party to the “disputes”? Can Chinese Taipei/Taiwan be regarded as a “South China Sea entity”?
7. Is Myanmar, and for that matter Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, even Singapore, be regarded as parties in the South China Sea disputes because these states signed the DoC with China and they are not exactly in the South China Sea or involved in the disputed area.
8. Is ASEAN a party to the South China Sea disputes?
9. A number of UNCLOS 1982 provisions would be useful and instrumental in those issues, such as the provisions on islands and rocks (Article 121), on various models of baselines and the nature of the waters enclosed by the different baselines, on management of resources, either living or non-living, and others.
(countinuing)
Read full text of this paper here
- Cooperation in the South China Sea: from Dispute Management to Ocean Governance, by Nguyen Dang Thang[21/01/2013 09:13]
- The South China Sea: Ten myths and ten realities, by Rodolfo C Severino[21/01/2013 09:03]
- Deciding Sovereignty Disputes: Ownership Claims Over “Land Features” in South China Sea, by Capt Azhari Abdul Aziz RMN[21/01/2013 08:28]
- Understanding Recent Developments in US-China-ASEAN Relations: A US Perspective, by Bonnie S. Glaser[21/01/2013 08:12]
- Flashpoint South China Seas: Policy options and Implications for India, by Probal Ghosh[21/01/2013 08:03]
- The Growth of Chinese Military power and its implications for military modernization in Southeast Asia, by Richard A. Bitzinger[21/01/2013 07:47]
- China Debates South China Sea Policy: Implications for Future Developments of the Dispute, by Li Mingjiang[21/01/2013 07:32]
- The Choice of Fundamental National Interests and the Position of South China Sea Issues, by Su Hao and Ruan Yuan-zhe[21/01/2013 06:50]
- Charm and Harm Offensives: Impacts of Geopolitical Considerations by China and the United States on the South China Sea Region, by Ngo Vinh Long[21/01/2013 04:08]
- Booklet of 4th International Workshop on South China Sea[05/12/2012 08:38]
- Opening remarks of 4th International Workshop on the South China Sea[20/11/2012 03:14]