Excessive Maritime Claims

This title is designed for law of the sea and maritime law specialists. The coverage includes current affairs in martime law such as submarine cables, polar areas, environmental protection, sovereign immunity and sunken ships, and maritime law enforcement.

The 4th edition of Excessive Maritime Claims updates material on state practice of the law of the sea since publication of the 3rd edition in 2012 and adds new material on islands and other maritime features.

A number of significant events in the law of the sea have occurred since the summer of 1994 when this book was first published by the U.S. Naval War College. Of greatest significance is the entry into force on November 16, 1994, of the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention, with a reformed Part XI on deep seabed mining, that gives every prospect of gaining universal acceptance. In addition, in submitting the Convention and implementing Agreement to the Senate for advice and consent in October 1994, President Clinton forwarded an extensive and authoritative Commentary on those documents. Consequently, the authors were encouraged to prepare a second edition for the wider audience which must deal with the traditional uses provisions of the modern Law of the Sea Convention now in force. A new chapter on marine data collection has been added and documents have been included which will further facilitate the use of this expanded volume as a working tool for the practitioner and student alike.

The South China Sea, where a number of great powers and regional players contend for influence, has emerged as one of the most potentially explosive regions in the world today. What can be done to reduce the possibility of conflict, solve the outstanding territorial problems, and harness the potential of the sea to promote regional development, environmental sustainability and security? This book, with contributions from leading authorities in China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, Singapore and the United States, seeks to illuminate these questions.

This new edition discusses the important clarifications on historic maritime claims—¬particularly 'historic rights' (falling short of sovereignty); and the interaction of such rights with the Law of the Sea Convention resulting from the arbitral Award on the Merits of 2016 in Philippines v. China, and examines what is now left of the former customary law doctrine.

Major law and policy issues in the South China Sea are discussed mainly from the perspectives of leading American and European scholars in the study of the complex South China Sea disputes. The issues include regional maritime cooperation and regime building, Southeast Asian countries’ responses to the Chinese assertiveness, China’s historic claims, maritime boundary delimitation and excessive maritime claims, military activities and the law of the sea, freedom of navigation and its impact on the problem, the dispute between Vietnam and China, confidence-building measures and U.S.-Taiwan-China relations in the South China Sea, and Taiwan’s role in the resolution to the South China Sea issues. Over the past three years, there have been several incidents in the South China Sea between the claimants, and also between the claimants and non-claimants over fisheries, collection of seismic data, exploration for oil and gas resources, and exercise of freedom of navigation. Third party concerns and involvement in the South China Sea disputes have been increasing as manifested in actions taken by the United States, India, and Japan. It is therefore important to examine South China Sea disputes from the legal and political perspective and from the view point of American and European experts who have been studying South China Sea issues for many years.

The Free Sea offers a unique, single-volume analysis of incidents in American history that affected U.S. freedom of navigation at sea. The book spans more than 200 years, beginning in the Colonial era with the Quasi-War with France in 1798 and extending to contemporary Freedom of Navigation operations in the South China Sea. Through wars and numerous crises with North Korea, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Russia and China, freedom of navigation has been a persistent challenge for the United States, a nation reliant on open seas for economic prosperity, military security and global order. This volume focuses on the struggle to retain freedom of the seas. Challenges to U.S. warships and maritime commerce have pushed, and continue to challenge, the United States to vindicate its rights through diplomatic, legal, and military means, underscoring the need for the strategic resolve in the global maritime commons.