Mô tả
Edited by: Clive Schofield, International Boundaries Research Unit, ARITIME BRIEFING, Volume 2 Number 1, ISBN 1-897643-23-3, 1996, International Boundaries Research Unit, Suite 3P, Mountjoy Research Centre, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3UR, UK.The area of the Spratly islands in the South China Sea is the most contested place on the planet. It includes both sovereignty and jurisdictional (boundary) disputes. The reference of this monograph's title to the Laurel and Hardy comic routine hints at the chronic miscommunication among the claimants. It also alludes to the allegation of 'discovery' that underlies several sovereignty assertions and to the sequential occupation of military outposts by the claimants. Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam claim part or all of the area. All of the countries except Brunei claim some of the islands and reefs. Matters are complicated because there is no agreed definition of the 'Spratly islands', and international law is ambiguous about the definition of islands and the resolution of conflicting sovereignty and jurisdictional claims. The Spratly islands dispute is aggravated by historical animosity, other land and maritime boundary disputes among the claimants, and the possibility of oil and gas deposits near the islands.
