Posts in the category ‘Law of the Sea’
Diaoyu or Senkaku? The Volatile Sovereignty Dispute between China and Japan
Much has been discussed in recent media about the deteriorating relations between two economic giants in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan and China, over the sovereignty of a group of uninhabited islands known as the Diaoyu Islands in Chinese and Senkaku Islands in Japanese. They are composed of five small volcanic islands and three rocky outcroppings, all lying between Taiwan and the island of Okinawa. The islands have little economic value, home only to certain species of moles and domestic sheep, although there are rich amounts of fish and oil and gas deposits in both the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone. Despite the complex relationship between China and Taiwan, both governments agree that the islands belong to Taiwan.
Dispute over the islands culminated into diplomatic war on September 7, 2010, when a Japanese Coast Guard Patrol Boat found a Chinese trawler travelling 12 km northwest of the islands, which is claimed by Japan as within its territorial waters. The ship’s crew and captain were arrested by the patrol boat and detained by Japan to be prosecuted under Japanese domestic law.
The move infuriated Beijing and diplomatic relations between the two countries deteriorated. It sparked public outrage as anti-Japanese protests were held in various cities across China. The same occurred in Japan, where thousands of Japanese demonstrators protested in Yokohama as Chinese President Hu Jin Tao arrived in the city…
BY Brett Hodgins
FILED UNDER
Environment
Law of the Sea
Public International Law
Satirical
A League of Their Own
In recent years China’s prominence on the world stage has grown rapidly. With consistently high GDP growth, a swelling middle class, and high-profile international events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics or the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, many recognize China as an emerging superpower. But this growth has not been consistent across all fronts, and in some respects China lags far behind other world powers. Recent events have made one area in particular stand out in this regard: oil spills.
On July 16th in the Chinese port city of Dalian, the explosion of two oil pipelines caused thousands of barrels of oil to begin gushing into the sea. The slick has since expanded to cover hundreds of square kilometres of water and spread upwards of 90km down the coast. The spill – and China’s cack-handed response – is clearly modelled after the U.S.’s ongoing gulf coast saga – but it’s a pale imitation. Unlike the American spill, there seems to be no threat of the oil being carried to other nations’ coasts. Yet even Australia has managed to pull off a massive spill affecting its neighbours. If China wants to get into the oil spill big leagues, they’ll have to find a way to go international.
But while the international oil spill scene is characterised by intense competition, there is a notable lack of corresponding cooperation. It’s…
Piracy – Who DOESN’T Bear the Cost
Piracy has always been a major concern in the shipping world. However, the surge in piracy, particularly off the coast of Somalia over the past few years, has called for specific changes in shipping practices.
In the first nine months of 2009, there were 306 incidents of piracy reported to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC). Of this number, 114 times pirates boarded the vessel, 34 times pirates hijacked the vessel and 88 times vessels were fired upon. While the Gulf of Aden and the East Coast of Somalia remain the regions of highest threat, pirate activity has expanded into the southern parts of the Red Sea, the Bab el Mandab Straits and the East Coast of Oman. This has led to the development of an entire industry of pirate negotiators and security firms who undertake to settle on ransom amounts and organize the drop shipment of the cash.
Shipowners sending their vessels through these dangerous waters have been slow to respond to these dangers, but have finally starting coming around to the inevitable: the beefing up of security for the ships. This includes paying extra amounts to join a protected convey in high-risk waters, hiring armed helicopters to fly over the ship, and in some instances, hiring armed guards to be on board the vessel itself. The great fear, of course, is that if a ship has its…
Strange Things Done in the Midnight Sun
Most systems of property law, like exorcists, attach special importance to possession. Once someone is in possession of a given piece of property, it is usually a demanding process to have them removed by force of law (pro tip: try holy water). The same has historically been true in matters of international territorial sovereignty. More often than not, the country which simply takes possession of territory will win out over others which may have more legitimate claims. Yet how can a state “take possession” of land which is uninhabitable? It doesn’t take a Neil Armstrong to tell you that the answer is by planting flags.
For some reason Canada seems unwilling to practise flag-planting as much as other countries. Today we have the excuse that most of our flags are hanging over Olympic podiums. But this wasn’t always the case, and our nervousness about throwing flags around is putting our claims of Arctic sovereignty at risk. These claims are important, and could translate into tall cash, since shrinking ice coverage and advancing technology will make it more practical to extract resources such as oil and natural gas from the Arctic seabed in the future.
Don’t let the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) fool you into thinking that flag-planting isn’t a legal basis for an Arctic claim. According to Part VI of the UNCLOS, states…
