One of the most creative innovations of the international diplomatic community in the 20th century was its invention of the international regime, a wrote Douglas M. Johnston in his last major work published posthumously (The Historical Foundations of World Order: The Tower and the Arena, Nijhoff, 2008). While regimes often provide order and certainty and a consequent reduction in disputes and misunderstandings, regimes are driven by specific concerns. With diverse disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives, the distinguished contributors to this tribute follow a long tradition of scholarly inquiry into the governance, creation, operation, viability and maintenance of international regimes. Their contributions on ocean and environmental regimes as diverse as fisheries, ocean dumping, maritime security, seafarersa (TM) rights, or enhancement of marine environmental protection attest to the depth to which modern international law and the underlying international relations have been transformed into an international law of structured cooperation. This book includes biographical and bibliographic notes on Douglas M. Johnston

Provides comprehensive coverage of basic and contemporary issues of the law of the sea in a systematic manner.

The past few decades have witnessed the emergence of a vast array of regional arrangements and institutions dealing with all aspects of ocean management. The level of cooperation ranges from minimal dispute avoidance to relatively comprehensive ocean governance at the regional level. As concrete examples, reasonably successful and comprehensive regional regimes have been created for the Baltic, the North, and the Mediterranean Seas and the South Pacific. And attempts at regional regime building are ongoing in Southeast Asia, the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. Although there are broad similarities between the semi-enclosed seas of Western Europe and Northeast Asia, no regional maritime regime has yet been initiated in Northeast Asia. The papers in this volume are authored by leading authorities on not only the maritime affairs of their particular region of focus but on maritime policy in general. They describe and explain existing or incipient regional maritime regimes in an unusually broad comparative context, and extract lessons learned that may be applicable elsewhere including Northeast Asia. The case studies are neatly sandwiched between an introduction to concepts and principles on regional co-operation and concluding chapters on lessons learned and their applicability to Northeast Asia. Moreover, the papers raise and address several questions of relevance to policy. For example, what factors are conducive to maritime regime initiation, expansion and positive evolution, and which constrain regime formation and evolution? Why has maritime regime building been successful in Europe and largely unsuccessful in Asia? And which, if any, lessons learned in the European context areapplicable in Asia? Given the growing interest in regime formation and effectiveness in general and maritime regimes in particular, this book will be of considerable interest to both analysts and policymakers.

Research on The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is a valuable addition to understanding the political situation in the potentially volatile South China Sea region. This book covers topics such as baselines, historic title and rights, due regard and abuse of rights, peaceful use of the ocean, navigation regimes, marine scientific research, intelligence gathering, the UNCLOS dispute settlement system and regional common heritage. In search of varying viewpoints, the authors in this book come from multiple countries, including the Philippines, Australia, Ireland, Mainland China and Taiwan, the United States, and Indonesia, Singapore, UK and Germany. Ongoing events, such as the recent waves made by China in the East China Sea and increasing tensions between the South East Asian countries over the use of South China Sea, make this book especially pertinent.

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.